


I Can’t Help (Falling in Love With You)

by remarkable1, smutty_claus



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 10:19:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/584303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remarkable1/pseuds/remarkable1, https://archiveofourown.org/users/smutty_claus/pseuds/smutty_claus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The roller-coaster tale of a stubborn Auror, snarky Potions Master and an urgent crime-case/mystery that will keep you – and them- on your toes!</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Can’t Help (Falling in Love With You)

**To: karasu_hime  
From: Your Secret Santa**

> **Title:** I Can’t Help (Falling in Love With You)  
>  **Author:** remarkable1  
>  **Pairing:** Snape/Tonks  
>  **Summary:** The roller-coaster tale of a stubborn Auror, snarky Potions Master and an urgent crime-case/mystery that will keep you – and them- on your toes!  
>  **Rating:** NC17  
>  **Length:** 22,189  
>  **Warnings:** non-consensual sex (mention only, implied), dubious consent (visual), violence, teeth-gnashing moments, and – oh yes!- Lemons!  
>  **Author's notes:** Please do not pass on this story because of the warnings. I skirt the subject matter, hence the warnings, but it is well worth the ride, even though your lips will be well-chewed by the time the story is done :D

 

“Shite, Tonks, would you watch what you’re doing?” Lily snapped, huffing and placing fists on her hips, then rolling her eyes and magicking up the mess the younger witch had just made. 

“Sorry!” Tonks gestured, righting herself from crashing into the entire table filled with punch and refreshments Lily had spent hours slaving over with Mrs. Weasley. “I’ll help clean up!” She turned around, knocking a crystal decanter to the ground as her elbow caught the handle. 

Lily shrieked, waving her wand, too late to catch the shards exploding in a spectacular show of blues, greens and reds, the enchanted ingredients wasted, soaked into the ground.

Tonks quickly shut her eyes, hiding behind her hands and peeking out from between her fingers into the deafening silence. Lily’s emerald green orbs cut a vicious swath across the ruined landscape of the hen party set-up they were putting on for Ginny. Slowly lowering her hands, Tonks looked around and shrugged, smiling brightly. “No problem! I’ll just-“

“You won’t be doing anything! Do you think I want your clumsy arse ruining any more of Ginny’s special day then you already have? Spare me!” Lily seethed, motioning with her wand to get Tonks to move. “Just, leave! OOOhh! I’m so furious I can’t even see straight. That decanter cost me a fortune. _Reparo!”_

Pieces of glass reversed themselves, flew upwards and landed in a perfectly shaped decanter on the table once more. Unfortunately, its contents were irreplaceable.

Molly Weasley came bustling out from the Burrow to gasp in shock at the remains of their buffet table. “What in Merlin’s name happened here?” she burst out with surprise, fluttering forward with one hand on her bosom.

Lily’s eyes narrowed again, cutting a scathing look at Tonks. “It was HER. SHE did this.”

Tonks held up her hands in defeat, backing away. “Hey, I was just trying to help, and I already said I was sorry. I – I’ll just be going.”

The two remaining women heard another crash as Tonks rounded the corner and strolled out of sight.

Molly closed her eyes in defeat. “That would have been potted potions ingredients.”

Lily shook her head in disgust and continued mopping up the disaster with her quick wand work. “She’s a bloody menace. I don’t understand why you even invited her.”

“She was part of the Order, dear, and they are all like family to us. Surely, you wouldn’t have us exclude family?”

“I’d exclude anyone that wrecked something every time they came to call,” Lily muttered, now finished with what she could salvage. “Not to mention how she pants after one wizard I’m interested in, and the other one I like pants after her and she treats him like he doesn’t exist!”

Molly either didn’t hear or chose to ignore that latter comment. “Well, there’s nothing for it, back to the kitchen and shake a leg, because guests will be arriving in less than a few hours!”

Lily bustled back into the Burrow on Molly’s heels, neither seeing the slightly saddened, violet eyes of Tonks peering, frowning after them from around the bend.

 

xxxxx

 

Ginny laughed, squealing drunkenly in a circle with the male stripper Hermione had hired for her party. The Burrow was packed to the brim, even poor Arthur being crowded out of his tinkering shed in favor of a pair of witches from the Holyhead Harpies team his daughter was on, stumbling in and making out furiously. 

With no small amount of wood in his trousers and a high blush on his ruddy cheeks, the Weasley patriarch had high-tailed it to the Three Broomsticks, where apparently all of the wizards of the partying witches were unofficially tying one on together. Well, why not? 

“Eh! Look who’s come to join us!” Bill shouted, motioning for his father to grab a pint of bitter. 

Arthur shook himself, unable to get the searing image of two young witches making out, out of his head. 

“What’s the matter, Dad, you look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

“Worse!” he muttered, climbing onto a stool and draining half the mug. 

Fred and George gave their Dad and older brother an incredulous stare. Arthur NEVER drank so quickly or heavily.

“Out with it then! What are the witches up to?”

“Yeah, is my Fleur wrapped around a pole or what?”

Arthur glanced around at the other men gathering to hear his tale. Remus, Sirius, James and Harry all slung their bodies over the booth opposite the bar stool of their friend in great interest.

“Someone mention a gaggle of birds?” Sirius asked in a slightly slurred voice.

A quick smack to the head had him thundering, “Oi! What’s that for?”

“Will you done shut your gob! Dad was about to tell us about the girls!” Fred hissed, smirking at a frowning Sirius.

“You din’ have to hit me so hard!”

“Quit whining, Pads!” James joined in, teasing his friend with the others.

“Yeah, let’s hear it!” Harry shouted, drunker than his Godfather.

“Will you lot quit your yammering so Dad can speak?”

Arthur was on his second bitter in the time it took the others to hold their collective rabbiting.

Severus and Draco had reached the bar, pretending to order drinks and not eavesdrop on the goings-on.

“If you two want a listen-in, you best be joining us, mates,” George happily exclaimed, dragging the two protesting Slytherins onto stools next to him and his brother.

“Do not manhandle me, Mr. Weasley!” Severus griped, forcibly making Draco take the chair nearer to James and Sirius. Although the men’s animosity was greatly toned down over the years due to the younger generation’s friendships following the short-lived war against Voldemort, there was still the underlying dislike and mistrust on both sides. 

“Who’s talking to me?” Charlie stumbled against the back of the bar stool Draco was on, causing him to spill his firewhisky down his shirt. 

“Watch where you’re going, Weasley!” Draco complained, tossing the rest down Charlie’s front.

“What?” came the chorus of Weasley brothers from their side.

“Oh, bloody hell, would you all just SHUT THE HELL UP!” Rosmerta’s shrill _Sonorus_ echoed over the tavern.

You could have heard a pin drop.

“That’s better!” George said cheerfully. “Thanks, love!” He winked at Rosmerta.

She winked back and went back to help another customer.

The noise level resumed at a much lower hum than before.

“Now Dad, before all these fine blokes barged in, you were going to tell us who chased you out ‘the house! You said you were working on a slink-o? Slinker? Ah hell, whatever, just, tell us!”

Arthur nodded enthusiastically at mention of his project. “It’s a Muggle toy called a Slinky! Marvelous, simply marvelous! You set it at the top of some stairs, pull one end down, and it walks –it walks! – it walks down the stairs. This might be instrumental in how we send messages! If I can charm one to walk on its own, why, they could replace owls! Just think of the possibilities!”

The boys were all nodding enthusiastically, Harry, Remus and Severus were all groaning, rolling their eyes or laughing their collective arses off, and Sirius was wide-eyed, leaning in to catch every detail that might be said about women.

“What about the birds, Dad?”

“No, I didn’t get any owls today.”

“The witches, you bloody idiot! The sodding witches! We want to know about the witches!” Sirius looked ready to pull Arthur by his lapels across the back of the booth and slap him silly.

On his third bitter, Arthur was beginning to get a healthy flush to his cheeks. “Oh, right then! Well, here I was, out in my workshop, minding my own business, and these two young ladies, -ladies! Mind you- just a-tumbled in through the side door, attached at the lips and a couple of other places I’d rather not mention.” His face went bright red to the tips of his ears, competing with his hair for best impression of a solar flare.

“Which ones, Dad! Tell us which ones!”

“Oh, I don’t know, Georgie, I didn’t stick around long enough to take down Floo addresses. You know, for a minute I thought they were going to follow me. Hope they don’t touch my slinkies,” he grumbled, almost to himself as he swigged more of his drink.

“I’d have made sure they were following ME,” Sirius griped, turning back around and sliding into his seat.

“Did you see my wife?” Bill asked and Arthur shook his head. 

“Nope. I cast a silencing spell on the walls. Those ladies were way too loud.”

Bill harrumphed and looked a little melancholy at not getting dibs on what his wife was up to.

Harry lost interest as well, seeing he was in the same boat and unable to catch wind of what his fiancé was getting into.

Draco sneered at no one in particular. “It’s a good thing you were on the side of light, Mr. Weasley. You’d have made a terrible Death Eater. HEY!”

Draco whined as Severus cuffed him round the back of the head with narrowed eyes. “Watch your mouth, you cretin! I’ll not have you insulting your employer.”

Arthur raised his hand in resignation. “No, it’s alright. He’s quite right. I would not have made a good Death Eater. The truth, it is, yes it is.” He downed his fourth bitter, causing his sons to inconspicuously have Rosmerta water down his consecutive drinks. It wouldn’t do to drag old Dad home in his cups within the hour.

The door banged open and all eyes looked up momentarily, most resuming business when they saw who it was, or wasn’t, rather. A few gazes lingered.

A forlorn Tonks stomped over the wooden floor and looked about for an open seat, but there was none. 

Severus sniffed delicately and turned away, wishing to finish his own drink in peace. Draco made to jump down from his stool and Severus caught his arm. “Not –yet,” he growled low enough for only his Godson to hear.

“But she needs a place to sit! Aren’t you the one always going on about my lack of manners?”

Severus winced inwardly. Dammit, the boy was right, but in this instance he didn’t give a whit. “This is Tonks we’re talking about,” he gritted out tightly, sucking a breath in through his teeth when she moved closer to order a drink.

“So?”

Severus could tell Draco was about to make an issue of it even as Tonks moved closer to their position. “Fine!” he conceded, practically shoving the blond young wizard from the seat in a small pique of consigned petulance. 

“Hey!” 

Tonks was oblivious, smiling between them when she reached the bar, knocking against Severus’ drink and causing it to slosh dangerously.

He pulled it quickly a foot down the bar away from her, shooting unseen daggers at the back of her bright pink, curly hair.

Glancing at Draco, Tonks grinned and said, “Wotcher, little cousin!”

Draco nodded to her. “I was just headed for the loo. You can sit here.”

“You sure? I wouldn’t want to interrupt…” she gestured between him and Snape.

Draco cast a cutting glance to his Godfather, who was now facing forward again, his jaw working tightly around nothing at all.

“No, you’re not interrupting. In fact, Severus was just asking about you, weren’t you?” Draco poked, deliberately jabbing the ex-professor in the ribs with the tip of his index finger before dancing away when Severus tried to smack him with a rolled up, dog-eared copy of Witch Weekly that lay on the bar.

Draco made a kissy face back at him and Severus narrowed his eyes, mouthing, “I’ll get you!”

Draco made a crude gesture, holding his index finger and thumb in an “O” with one hand and shoving his other index finger through the hole while Tonks had her back turned, ordering.

Rosmerta threw a light stinging hex his way and he yelped, finally leaving to really go to the loo.

“Thank you, Rosie,” Severus sighed, nodding for another. The place was beginning to give him a headache, but Draco liked to “hang with the guys” so as the boy’s part-time mentor, he was forced to supervise and socialize once in awhile as part of Draco’s ongoing, post-war probation.

Even with his own, self-imposed two-drink rule not being broken for two years running, Severus was tempted to say, ‘fuck it’ internally and have something much, much stronger in copious amounts when the dubiously inestimable Tonks set in on him as well.

“Wotcher, Professor!” she gibed cheerfully, also elbowing him lightly in the ribs. Her eyes were light and teasing, a muddy purple color that of a faded Indian silk washed too many times and left to dry in the sun. They turned a deep, bleary amethyst suddenly and he drew breath at the stunning change.

If Tonks was affronted at his frank appraisal and subsequent dismissal of her she didn’t comment, choosing to ramble on.

“Dreadful party, those hen things. Don’t reckon I’ll have one myself, if I ever marry, that is.”

Severus winced at the dreaded M word. It was an entanglement he’d managed to avoid for his forty-odd years and planned to jolly-well uphold for a good forty-odd more. Women were too – confining- in personal relationships, and they weren’t to be trusted with your heart or galleons. Lily had proved that to him long ago, leaving behind trails of broken hearts over the years which stung him more deeply than anyone imagined. His only triumph had been when she’d left James Potter for a younger bloke, fresh out of Hogwarts and Newts diploma barely in hand. _That_ had been funny.

On the outskirts of his attention, he noticed Tonks prattling on about her Auror work and he sighed loudly. His brain registered the sudden cessation of monologue from the younger witch and he turned slightly toward her, his body language still overtly cold and distant.

“Am I boring you, Professor?” she asked, shoving her small chin in one hand while staring morosely at the ‘good stuff’ behind the bar, usually reserved for those with endless pockets like the Malfoys. 

Severus was too tight-fisted to buy anything so outrageously expensive, when he could trade for the same with his skills in potions. Treating a witch to such extravagant libations? He scoffed at the very notion. He wasn’t young enough to think that a lady’s box was anything special, and be dumb enough to pay for it.

Resigning himself into being forced to speak with Tonks, he turned only slightly toward her. “Not at all, Nymphadora. Do carry on, if you please, but I am no longer Professor. Just, ‘Snape’, will do.”

“Why- why- you! YOU!” she screeched in his ear, suddenly affronted and to his great surprise, was suddenly wearing a fruity drink with various bits of canned pineapple, pear and apple, complete with a little pink umbrella and a somber-looking, plastic flamingo looking him in the eye.

He sputtered, jumping up and wiping the front of his soaked robes. “Bloody –insane- female!” he fumed, drawing his wand and meeting the business end of five more simultaneously. Severus raised his hands in defeat; very slowly tucking away the ebony length in the deafening silence, save for the amused snicker of Draco coming his way. With a light flick of his fingers the front of him was cleaned of Tonks’ ire, not that said cleansing would stop anyone from putting the memory of the moment in a Pensieve for later comedic viewing.

Tonks’ eyes were narrowed, hands on her curvy little hips, shaking her changed, wild purple and yellow head from side to side. “Don’t you ever call me that, you cretin!” she seethed, earning a low whistle from Sirius.

“And what, pray tell, did I call you that was so offensive?”

Arthur had quickly commandeered the senses of the assembled, shushing them to put their wands away.

Relaxing marginally, Snape drew to his full height and stared imperiously down his large conch at the spitting witch.

“You called me by my name!”

One long, arched eyebrow rose imperiously in contempt. “That is a crime? Oh please do arrest me, Auror Tonks. Such a very deserving offense, wouldn’t we all agree?”

A low blush of fury tinged her cheeks pink and his eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the tip of her tongue poking out to wet her lips.

“Everyone knows I hate that name. EVERYONE. But you just like to twist the knife, don’t you? Well if you didn’t want me to talk to you, you could have just said something!”

“I thought my inattention to your idle, banal rabbiting was quite obvious. I see I shall have to be more direct.”

The patrons all seemed to hold their breath as he leaned in, inches from her face. Tonks could feel the hot breath puffing toward her, mixed with brandy and caramel, not an unpleasant combination. She stuck out her chin in defiance and nodded upwards for him to get on with it.

“ _Leave. Me. Alone._ Your attentions are unwanted and unwarranted. I’ve done nothing to invite nor encourage them. Go avail yourself of some young wizard who is still willing to prostrate himself for any bit of fluff that showers him with a coy glance. I am not a wizard with whom to toy.”

Hot tears pricked her eyes and for a moment he almost felt a twinge of remorse. His words were meant to cut and sting, and they had done so swiftly and effectively. 

At the shouts of, “Oi!” and “Hey, you can’t say that to her!” rose around him, he waved his hands as if conducting a classroom to silence and was met with the effective measure once more blanketing the room in quiet.

“I know when my presence is not welcome. Come, Draco, there is work to be done. Clearly, joining this lot was a mistake.”

Draco blew his bangs out of his eyes and shoved his hands in his trouser pockets, clearly abashed by how backward his teasing had all gone. If only his Uncle would see what was right in front of his eyes before it was too late.

Well, the damage had been done and he was partially to blame. “Alright, give me a moment.”

“I shall wait for you outside?” inquired Severus in a low voice, heard only slightly over the general buzz that had resumed at the spectacle before them.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be along.”

Severus nodded sharply, and cutting a sneer to the remaining stony-faced wizards and none for the witch whom he’d struck down verbally, glided out the door of the establishment like he owned the place.

Draco strode quickly to his trembling cousin and put his hands on her shoulders. She shook them off and hugged herself, trying to hide her eyes by allowing her hair to fall into her face.

“Leave me alone. Just…. leave me alone.”

With a sigh, he nodded, giving her shoulders a squeeze and following his patron from the pub.

Tonks blinked away her tears and unwilling to be the subject of pity to the rest of the male population, had a quick word with Rosmerta to use her private Floo in the back for an extra sickle.

A pair of tawny eyes followed her wistfully, teeth set in anger and sadness that the woman he’d wanted for so long was cut down so terribly by the great bat. The former dark wizard had no idea what he was turning away.

Sirius shook Remus from his reverie. “Get over her, mate. There’s no understanding birds.”

Remus took a long pull from his cup, shaking his head morosely. “I don’t understand what she sees in him.”

Sirius snorted in reply, leaning in closer so Remus could hear past the heated debate the inebriated Harry and his father had resumed, regarding various Quidditch plays. Both father and son were well in their cups, but Sirius knew Moony wouldn’t want this broadcast about.

“What did I just tell you? He’s a git! Birds go after them like flies on shit, mate. I know a particularly scrumptious redhead that fancies you.” Sirius winked, downing the rest of his own tankard before pouring himself another.

Remus drummed his fingers on the table, eyes lost in the direction Tonks had last disappeared. “You’re imagining things. Lily’s only ever had eyes for men with money. You’re just trying to distract me from Dora.”

“Damn straight! But I’m telling you, once you get your thick head out of your arse and have a look around; you’ll see I’m not just pulling your leg.”

Remus just shook his head and sighed again.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “And they call _me_ thick headed.”

 

Xxxxx

 

Harry staggered out of the loo from one of the many upstairs rooms for rent the proprietor of the Three Broomsticks had set them up with. His father still laid face-down on the comforter, fully dressed. Remus and Sirius lay snoring, limbs entwined, Sirius’ long mustache making Remus’ nose twitch. 

It would have been funny if his head hadn’t of been pounding. 

“Gods! I feel like the Hogwarts Express drove over me!” he muttered, sinking down next to his overnight bag and rummaging, sighing in relief when he heard the clink of potions bottles.

Out came a sack with four hangover cures inside. Mentally blessing Hermione and his own mother’s obsessive party preparations, he downed one and immediately felt a thousand times better. Harry grinned, thinking about how much fun the girls probably had had.

Setting one vial each down next to their respective to-be consumers, he glanced backward and smirked, shouldering his pack. There was still work to do on their new/old, fixer-upper home he’d gotten at a steal from an old wizard that decided he wanted to travel before he died and had left no heirs behind.

Apparating as quietly as he could since it was still pretty early in the morning, Harry took in a deep breath of awe at the sight of his fiancé’s long, bare legs splayed as she bent over in front of the little house, running her wand over the earth in precise rows. It appeared as if she were preparing it in a very precise manner to plant flowers or herbs in the spring, as there was a bag of fertilizer and mulch just to her right.

The day was unusually warm for the time of year. It was perfect for the earthy preparations his fiancé’ was indulging in.

The vision of her lovely arse up in the air, pushed out against her hot pants, sent his nether regions hard and throbbing.

Harry swallowed hard, sneaking up behind her and grinding himself into her backside. Ginny groaned and reached behind her, gracefully pulling herself up and dirtying his clean trousers with her filthy fingers and wand.

“Hi, love,” she murmured, baring her neck when he kissed down the long, smooth column.

“Morning, ‘Gin. How was your hen party?”

“Fab! We had a great time, and plenty of memories to go ‘round.”

“I bet,” he moaned, pulling his hands down to grab the swells of her buttocks, giving them a firm squeeze of appreciation.

“Did you and the lads have a good time?”

“Yeah. We all got rat-arsed drunk, but I have my mum and ‘Mione to thank for the hangover remedy.”

Ginny’s laugh tinkled out lightly into the cool morning air. “Yeah, ‘Mione’s always got loads of remedies on hand. Being the Head of Potions and Pharmaceuticals doesn’t hurt!. She’s quite the whiz at combining the magical and Muggle.”

“Bloody brilliant, she is,” he breathed, leaning around to capture Ginny’s pink, plump lips in his own.

“Fancy a shag, love?” she whispered.

Harry grinned into her mouth, his eyes closed in happiness and lustful delirium. “Thought you’d never ask. Let’s go in and break in the sun room.”

“Yes, let’s,” she breathed back, the pair disappearing into the house and breaking in not only their sun room, but the mud room and their empty bedroom as well before taking a mid-morning kip.

 

\--

 

It was back to work as usual for the majority of the revelers. 

Tonks clocked in, making her morning rounds and greeting her partner, Bill; going over the latest developments in the case they were working on.

“Got any leads in the Thompson case?” she queried, tossing her own recent notes on top of the file he was perusing in their combined cubicle. They often spent as much time there as in the field, needing to combine research with brawn. Their combined talents often led to the more complicated and in-depth cases the department had on offer, into their work flow. The team was a legend in their own department for never leaving a case cold. They’d solved every one put in front of them, up until now. The Muggle/magical, sophisticatedly altered date rape drug and its subsequent trail of victims had them chasing their noses for nigh on six months running and they were both weary of the circles they’d been run ragged because of it.

“What did our resident Swot have to say about the so-called, ‘roofies’?” Bill asked, borrowing the Muggle term Hermione had coined the drug, wiping his hand over his tired face. He’d had a bit too much to drink the night before and not bothered with hangover cure.

Tonks shook her head and pulled the file over to her. “Didn’t get a chance to talk to her. She was in the middle of a hen-party game by the time I showed up, and then I ended up leaving soon after.”

Bill frowned at his partner. It wasn’t like her to leave an opportunity to network, hanging like that. “Something happen?”

Tonks shook her head again, refusing to meet his gaze or answer his question.  
Bill put down his quill and notes, shoving them aside. He stared hard at Tonks, noting the way she chewed her lower lip in agitation, much like Hermione always did when something was on her mind.

“Alright then. Out with it.”

“Out with what?” she pretended not to know, flipping a page of parchment.

Bill pulled the file away from her and shoved it to the side. 

“Hey! I was looking at that!”

“No, you weren’t. You’re avoiding my questions, and you’re always the one riding my arse when something’s bothering me. Now, out with it! Tell me what’s bugging you so we can get back to work.”

Tonks narrowed her eyes at Bill and then huffed, shoving herself back in her chair and leaning back on two legs.

“Fine! It’s the _bitch_ again. Any time I show up at the Burrow she’s there, riding around Molly’s skirts like she’s the next Suzy Homemaker. I can’t say or do anything around her without some snide comment rolling out of her foul mouth. I don’t understand, Bill! According to Hermione, she’s not like that around anyone else, just me! Not one of the girls believed me when I told them she was acting like that until they saw it for themselves last night.”

Bill ran one finger round his lips, thinking before he replied, “Have you talked to Harry or James? Maybe they can figure out what’s going on.”

Tonks frowned. “Harry’s got so much on his mind right now, what with him and Ginny getting married and working on their new house. And you know James; he doesn’t want anything to do with Lily.”

Bill sighed and nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. He’s still bitter after all these years, isn’t he?”

Tonks shrugged. “Dunno. Never asked him about it and I don’t really care, it’s just, I never did anything to her, you know? I wish she’d just come out and tell me what’s got her knickers in a twist.”

Bill’s face twisted into a wry smile. “Do you think it has anything to do with Snape?”

“What?” Tonks had lowered her gaze to the table again in resignation only to jerk her head up in surprise at his rejoinder. Her hair blazed a bright purple, her eyes turning from their normal muddy violet to the brilliant, clear amethyst at the mention of her crush’s name being tossed out there.

Bill wisely held in his snicker of knowing. Tonks was so damn transparent, at least to him. He’d known for some time she’d had the hots for the snarky potions master. Maybe it was time to clue her in on a few things concerning men, temperamental ones aside. Snape, after all, wasn’t your average wizard.

He leaned in, grabbing her hand and squeezing it. 

“You heard me,” he said gently. 

She pulled in a breath and held it, blowing it out so the long tips of her bangs blew up and came down. “What’s Lily got to do with Snape?”

As easily as he could, Bill informed her, “She’s been pining after him for years. Don’t you see? She’s jealous. Even though Snape won’t give her the time of day, she feels like you’re a threat to her interest in him. Never mind the fact she’s too chicken shit to make any moves on her own. Why do you think Harry’s mum can’t hold onto a man? She’s still got a lot of growing up to do.”

Tonks narrowed her eyes. “How do you know so much about Harry’s mum?”

Bill smiled smugly. “My mum talks a lot. Dad’s so busy with the taxi service and his tinkering he’s hardly home anymore. You know how she is when you let her go on and on.”

Tonks punched his shoulder good-naturedly and then frowned again. “So, do you think there’s anything I can do to get her off my back?”

Bill shrugged, releasing her hand. “No clue, mate. Just don’t let her get you down, yeah?”

Tonks nodded and sighed once more. “It’s so hard, you know? I just want to be Lily’s friend, but she makes me feel inferior.”

Bill snorted. “You? _The_ hard-headed, tough-girl extraordinaire? Yeah, right.”

His partner pleaded with him to understand. “You don’t get it, what it’s like to be a chick with a rep for being a tough girl. I mean, it’s great and all, to be one of the guys but…..”

The handsome redhead leaned in and tilted her chin up with a forefinger. Her eyes remained amethyst but faded a bit. Bill knew there wasn’t a mutual attraction there, but truth be told, if he hadn’t already been with Fleur, he’d have made a move on the spunky little witch ages ago.

“If Snape can’t see what’s in front of him, he’s a bloody fool,” he affirmed, touching her lips with the same finger before drawing back. He quickly grew uncomfortable with the tears pricking in her eyes and pushed her on the shoulder, bringing an indignant, “Oi!” from her and a silly grin. “You don’t have to worry about being ‘one of the guys,’ Tonks. There’s loads of blokes that’d give their left nut to date you.”

“Yeah?” She gave him a sardonic frown, not sure if he was taking the piss.

“Sure! Justin in Requisitions asks about you all the time.”

Tonks made a face and Bill laughed.

“Okay, what about Tuppington?”

“Bruce the Bear? But he’s married!”

“He’s not. They got divorced last year, and says he’d fancy a shag if you’d give him the time of day.”

“I talk to him, but… he’s not my type.”

“How do you know what your type is if you’ve only got your heart set on the one wizard who won’t give you the time of day?”

She turned away from him then, crossing her arms petulantly. 

Bill hesitated, having been sworn to secrecy by Sirius, but felt his partner really needed the pick-me-up. “Tonks.”

“Yeah?” She turned a stale glare on him, ready for another perceived jibe.

“There’s someone else that likes you –I mean – really likes you, but you have to swear not to tell anyone that it’s me that told you.”

Tonks huffed and nodded. “Alright, not that it’ll make a difference at this point. Who is it?”

“Remus.”

“WHAT?” Then she laughed, long and loud. “Oh god, now I KNOW you’re taking the piss. He’s never looked at me twice! I used to moon after him for ages and well; he flat out told me he wasn’t interested. Said I was too young.”

“He doesn’t feel that way anymore.”

The younger Auror wanted to pry and ask who’d told him all this, but experience told her to just take him at his word or he’d quit talking about it, and she was dreadfully curious.

Realizing he was serious, she covered her mouth with one hand. “Oh my Goddess, you ARE serious. Really?”

Bill nodded emphatically, his own grin splitting his face. “Yeah, and I heard Lily’s got the hots for him too. So, you are best off ignoring her from here on out. You’ve got beauty and brains, with one of her crushes panting after you. Does that put her attitude into perspective?”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t have to be so bloody mean to me all the time.”

“Avoid her.”

“I can’t. I’ve got to be around Harry and Hermione on this case and she’s always hanging around the Burrow. It’s the best meeting place we’ve got right now when we’re off duty or need to collaborate incognito.”

“True.”

“Any advice?”

“From me?”

She nodded.

His hand came for an instant and tucked an errant flick of hair behind one ear. “Keep your chin up. Even if you’re not interested in Remus anymore, don’t write him off, okay?”

Her breath caught at his intimate touch and a traitorous tear slipped from the corner of one eye. “Do you think he’ll ever come around?”

Bill closed his eyes and looked toward the ceiling, exasperated with her obsession with Snape but indulging her nonetheless. “There’s no telling. The old bat’s a mystery on his best days. I’ll just say, that if you’ve got your heart set on him, then don’t give up. But I hate seeing you hurting, so remember, he’s not the only wizard with a broom.”

Tonks smiled a genuine, honest to goodness grin at her partner. “Maybe not, but he’s one fine piece of wizard flesh. I’d like to have a go at his broomstick.”

Bill groaned and squeezed his eyes shut tightly. “Please, Merlin, please get that image out of my brain.”

Tonks laughed and smacked him, pulling the file back over between them. 

“Alright, alright. Wotcher, Bill! Let’s put our heads together and get cracking on this. What d’ya say?”

Relieved to be rid of that slippery slope of Tonks and Snape getting it on, he nodded sharply and they got down to business.

 

\--

 

The twilight of pre-dawn marked the early morning time with rabid insomnia. Another _Tempus_ told Tonks it was still only five minutes from when she’d last checked the time.

_‘Dammit! Why can’t I get some sleep?’_

She knew the reason why even as she railed at herself. It was Snape. Lock, stock and barrel, she was hooked on the greasy git and needed some quick relief. 

With a sigh of frustration borne from giving in to that which she’d avoided all the live-long night, her nimble fingers quickly slipped into her knickers and through her purple curls. 

Sinking further into her pillow, eyes shut tight, it took little to bring the image of a pale, scarred back to mind, her inner fantasy following every imagined outline from sacrifice to sacrifice. He’d take a deep breath and protest but with a light, quick touch she’d quell his concerns with light kisses and soft breasts pressed into his back.

Taking her time, she’d explore his body even as the stolid wizard would be still as stone, unyielding, skin on fire and nerves burning under her touch.

She would make him melt with her passion and dare she think it? Yes, even her burgeoning love that burned brighter and hotter with each passing day, fantasy and yearning for the dark man.

Fingers working faster over her clit, slipping past her sex to dip deep inside, curling up and out again to swipe back over the solid pearl, her breath came faster with her fantasy Snape finally growling and grabbing her hard, a searing kiss burning its way into her very soul.

His thicker, spindly but agile fingers reached even further inside her than her own fingers, hitting spots that she never dreamed existed.

Tonks was so primed and ready it took little more than his dream mouth moving to suck once, firmly on her tender bud between his sensuous lips before she came hard, gushing over her fingers and screaming, her hair a brilliant shade of white.

Unfortunately, with her orgasm, the image of her fantasy lover also faded into the nether realms of her other fantasies, as she left her fingers in her knickers and drifted off for the few hours before she’d rise before another full work day.

 

\--

 

“Idiot! I no longer possess enough of the original sample to extract another specimen for analysis!”

“I – I’m sorry Professor Snape! I thought your notes called for six grams of the extract and four grams of-“

“Silence! You impudent fool!”

The snarling, irate potions master stuck his nose right in the face of Hermione’s cowering assistant. “I always knew you wouldn’t amount to anything, Jenkins. You are still the same incompetent, fumbling, bumbling, slug-brained, dunderheaded-“

Each step thrust forward by the much taller and imposing wizard forced the terrified young man back toward the lab door, which consequently, neither noticed had been opened and occupied by said apprentice’s rather lovely boss.

“That’s enough,” Hermione said quietly, eliciting a yelp from Jenkins as she pulled him, literally, out from under the bent forward Snape. Shoving him out the door with a hissed, “For god’s sake, go get me a cuppa or something!” she then turned back to the consultant and sighed.

“What did he do this time?”

“This time? THIS TIME!?” Snape roared so loudly he almost blew her hair back with his fury.

One small hand came up and she closed her eyes in defeat. “Alright! I get it. You realize this means you’ll have to work with me personally.”

“The insufferable know-it-all is better than that blithering moron you call an assistant.”

Hermione smiled at the nickname, that at one time would have had her in tears. Now it made her feel only a begrudging fondness for the old bat. His blustering was old hat and now that he was no longer teaching, he hated being called Professor, even though he still acted like he would towards an incompetent student.

“I’ve been meaning to fire him but I haven’t the heart. He’s three kids to support.”

“Then he should learn a trade like the rest of us. You cannot keep taking on hard cases, not with such important research on the line.”

“You and how many others keep telling me this? I should really relegate my hiring to someone else.”

“Now you’ve come to your senses. It’s about time.”

Their bantering had led her to his worn work table with the ruins of the sample. Even she turned up her nose at the disgusting ruins. “Is this what you were chewing him out for?”

“Indeed.” Snape disgustedly gestured to the mess. “I’ve nothing further with which to work. Either Auror Weasley is able to procure another sample or we are back to square one.”

Hermione knew he was referring to Bill. More often than not, it was Tonks that brought her the samples but the dark wizard refused to acknowledge her, and Hermione chose not to push the issue.

“Surely, there’s something to salvage?”

Snape snarled a bit at her pushiness. “Don’t you think I’d already be at it, if there were? The manner in which he’s fucked up is surmounted only by the days of Longbottom exploding cauldrons in my classroom.”

“That is bad.”

“Indeed.”

The two were silent, both intelligent minds churning as to what to do to move ahead.

Snape looked up, recognizing the way the cogs in her great brain were turning as she chewed on her lower lip, worrying the poor thing almost to bits. Narrowing his eyes, he simply waited for her to complete the train of thought that’d already crossed his mind.

“There’s nothing for it,” she said softly, meeting his gaze. “We’ll have to have them do a set-up. We can’t afford to let these bastards get away. There’s too much at stake, and they’re too smart for their own good. Have you made a list of students you suspect could have accomplished this level of sophistication in potions making?”

“Yes, but it’s short, and most of them are not the standard suspects.”

“Motives usually aren’t standard.”

“Explain.”

“Anyone can have a grudge, a mental illness, an undiagnosed family history or motive for such actions. It’s usually the ones you don’t suspect that are the ones to watch most closely.”

Again, he was impressed with her astute observation, keeping his praise silent but for an arched brow of approval which he knew she would take for what it was.

“Maybe you should be the one working for the Auror division.”

“Trust me, they offered, but I find this division more challenging. I’ll leave the broom flying to the likes of Bill and Tonks.”

At the mention of the metamorphmagus Snape’s lip curled slightly and he harrumphed, swirling in place to vanish the contents of the cauldron and levitate supplies to the sink and cupboards.

Hermione kept that observation to herself, knowing it was none of her business, although her skills at deducing body language and reading between the lines were as keen, if not more so, than anyone else.

“I’ll just go speak with Tonks and see what they can set up.”

She was already halfway to the door when a strong hand jerked her back slightly, surprising her with it’s sudden, rough grip that stopped her in her tracks.

“You’ll do no such thing!”

Shocked, she turned and shrugged off the guilty hand, giving Snape an incredulous stare.

“How dare you manhandle me?”

Clearly chastened by his sudden, out-of-character outburst, Snape took a step back and bowed his head slightly. “My apologies, but I feel it is far too dangerous for some individuals to undertake a mission of this caliber.”

“Since when do you give a shit how anyone else does their job, if it doesn’t involve your own?”

Her own course language took him by surprise. Granger rarely swore, so he clearly had rattled her. He, himself, hardly understood this course of action, merely going on gut instinct.

Scrambling for some semblance of what he hoped passed muster portraying self confidence and feeling none of it, he barely stuttered, “I – I merely bow to intuition - this does not seem to be the prudent course of action. It is, of course, none of my concern how the Auror department goes about handling its business, however…..” Here, he cleared his throat, knowing she wasn’t going to like what he had to say, so he didn’t meet her eyes and instead looked over her shoulder at a bare strip of wall. “I feel the role would be better met by a wizard Polyjuiced, in lieu of endangering one of the female staff.”

“Why – you – you – sexist pig!” Hermione raged, coming at him and slapping his chest, poking him with her index finger. “How dare you suggest a witch can’t do the job as well as a wizard! Severus Snape, that is the most ugly, vile, sexist, underhanded thing I’ve heard come from your mouth in ages! How DARE you?”

Snape grabbed her wrists and forced her to step back once, twice, her eyes going wide with the sudden force of his grip and fire in his eyes. “I’ve not spent over half of my life, risking it to save the scrawny necks of you and your friends, being tortured by the most evil wizard alive, and honing my instincts to a razor sharp edge to ignore them now. Hear me well, witch, for I will only say this bluntly the one time.”

Hermione nodded nervously, her eyes going to her wrists which he promptly released, but stayed near her to press his point. She raised her chin and nervously met his cool, black gaze with all seriousness.

Satisfied of her undue attention, he continued. “My gut is screaming at me to warn you and any other witch off of this so-called set-up. So help me, by Merlin, if I hear of you, Nymphadora Tonks or any other witch being put in this very position, I will not be the one to come crying to. Am I clear?”

“Crystal, sir,” she replied softly, nodding once.

Hermione backed away, nodding once more as she closed the door softly behind her; glancing back once more at Snape’s turning back.

Snape closed his eyes, the sudden vision of a metamorphmagus screaming in agony while being brutally raped tearing, unbidden, through his mind and forcing a roar of frustration from his chest at the unwanted image, and feelings of helpless terror that accompanied it.

 

\--

 

Harry scratched his head, at an impasse with the most frustrating case of his young career as head of the Auror department. He pushed the messy thatch of black hair out of his face only to have it fall into his green eyes again. Blowing them out of his face for a spare second, he pounded his fist on the case file.

Bill and Tonks sat with folded arms, glaring at one another even as Hermione shuffled in with her arms full of more folders. 

“’Mione! Just the person I wanted to see.”

Hermione groaned when she saw the file of the hour on his desk. Bill and Tonks didn’t release their glare on one another but the tete a tete went unnoticed by the distracted pharmaceutical head.

“What is it, Harry? I’ve got a hell of a lot of backtracking to do here.”

“I heard you fired your assistant.”

She smiled grimly, smacking the pile in her arms down in front of him and smirking when he frowned.

“What’s all this for?”

“This,” she gestured, “are Muggle files of women date raped with an unknown substance found in their blood. It varies in potency and has several unidentified ingredients, the least of which has a magical signature similar to the potions mixtures we’ve detected in the wizarding cases.”

“How did you get all of this?” he asked, astounded at her audacity.

“I have my sources.”

Harry just shook his head and sighed, flopping back in his chair. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”

Hermione shrugged. “I just collected it. What you do with it is up to you. I just thought you’d like a little more work added to your pile.”

Harry stuck his tongue out at her and she giggled, turning to finally notice the fiery, silent stand-off between the two partners at the head of Harry’s desk. 

“What’s your problem?”

Tonks refused to break her gaze and gritted through clenched teeth, _“Some_ wizards seem to think I’m not good enough to do a stake-out to catch the bastards hurting witches.”

Bill seethed back at her, _“Some_ wizards have a hell of a lot of respect for their stubborn, asinine and reckless partners who put themselves in danger when it’s not necessary!”

“A person proficient in potions and pharmaceutical is going to smell the Polyjuice on you a mile away!”

“There are charms to mask it!”

“And a simple _Finite_ would cancel it so fast and your cover blown, your fucking head would spin! You are NOT going dictate my actions, you great ginger git!”

“That’s ENGOUH!” Harry shouted hotly, standing abruptly and leaning over his desk, fists planted on the far edge. All eyes swiveled to his burning emerald ones simultaneously in shock. Harry was normally pretty level headed about his job, but he hated his staff squabbling amongst themselves.

“It isn’t UP to either of you, what the final decision is regarding this case. Don’t make me reassign you!”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Tonks hissed, silenced by a sharp swipe of his hand.

“I would dare, and I will, if you two don’t knock it off.”

Harry rubbed his fists over his eyes and sighed. “Both of you, take the rest of the day off. I need to talk to Hermione in private.”

Knowing better than to argue with their boss when he was in a state, the two Auror partners fastidiously avoided touching one another as they gathered their things and left the office in different directions.

Harry slumped back in his chair and gestured at his best friend. “Out with it.”

“Excuse me?” Hermione occupied one of the chairs the others had just vacated, giving Harry an innocent, wide-eyed look.

Harry carelessly waved his wand at the door, slamming it shut and silencing it with a quick charm. “Cut the bullshit. I know you didn’t just come down here to drop off a bunch of useless files I already have copies of.”

Hermione observed him shrewdly. Harry was much more wise then he used to be, and could read her well. 

“Snape has a hunch, and I find it kind of creepy that you’re on the same wavelength.”

Harry sighed. “Would you get to the point? I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Snape told me, point blank, that his guts were screaming that a set-up with any witch involving this case was a bad idea. He said that Polyjuicing a wizard was the only way to ensure another woman wasn’t victimized, Auror or not.”

Harry snorted in disbelief. “Are you joking? It’s obvious he just doesn’t want Tonks as the bait.”

“What are you talking about?” Hermione stood, beginning to pace the room.

Harry hated it when she did that.

“Come off it, ‘Mione, everyone knows he’s sweet on her.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Why would I joke about something like that? The entire department has a running bet on whether they’ll shag each other senseless or Avada the other at point-blank range. This has been building for years. Snape just doesn’t know it yet.”

Harry grinned to himself as if at a private joke.

“What aren’t you telling me, Harry Potter!” Hermione demanded, planting her fists on her hips squarely.

If it were possible, Harry’s smile grew even wider, showing his brilliantly white rows of teeth. “Snape talks in his sleep at Grimmauld.”

 

\--

 

The Burrow was brimming with the succulent smells of Molly Weasley’s cooking. Mouths watered, and it was difficult to concentrate on the upcoming sting operation to bring the culprit out in the open.

“New Years Eve?” Sirius frowned, stroking his short beard.

“It’s perfect! Everyone will be out partying and we’ll make sure the majority of us are at the ready, while the ladies break off from the group.” 

More than a few frowns accompanied the enthusiastic statement from Charlie.

“How do you know where the perps are going to strike?” Lily asked nervously, twisting her finger through her long, lustrous red hair.

“Word of mouth,” Remus countered, knocking his knuckles on the worn wood of the magically expanded kitchen table. “Lots of people talk and don’t think anyone is listening. Right now it’s rumor, but I got a tip from one of the northern packs about a pattern we’ve speculated at, but confirmed through my source.”

“Are you going to share that source with us?” Bill questioned seriously. He didn’t like the amount of people, especially those close to him, in on the case. The more who knew, the more likely it was something would go awry.

Remus shook his head. “Can’t. Sworn to secrecy.”

“Goddamnit!” Bill shouted, pushing back his chair in anger. “What the hell is wrong with you? Guess who takes the blame if one of the women gets hurt?”

Harry stepped up from where he’d been leaning against a far wall. “I will,” he replied quietly, forcing everyone to strain to hear. He held up a hand to stave off protest. “I know this is a great risk we’re taking, but we’ve weighted the options, pros and cons and despite the concerns brought to me about Polyjuice and the Yule celebration as a potential targeting date, our Arithmancy division has narrowed this down to the best ploy and date to catch our criminals red-handed, so to speak.”

His tone brooked no argument and a few heads lowered, lips tightening in disapproval. Hermione’s was one of them. Her face burned at the thought of Harry ignoring Snape’s warning. 

As if on cue, Snape pushed off from the opposite wall and snorted in Harry’s direction, eliciting all gazes to turn to his sudden movement. “I wash my hands of this farce. Miss Granger, you will bring me any further samples for analysis. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Harry’s lips tightened in disapproval as well. He didn’t want the rest of the group knowing about Snape’s warning and knew he’d have some explaining to do if anyone raised too much of a stink about the cryptic comment.

Snape sneered at Harry, lucky that the boy’s father wasn’t in the room. As it was, a furious Sirius had to be held back by Remus, quite firmly, as he shouted, “Oi!” at the retreating form of their resident potions consultant.

“Meeting adjourned, and on a lighter note, don’t forget to look sharp for the Yule Ball at Hogwarts!” Harry beamed, particularly happy to have something fun to look forward to.

“Oh shite! That reminds me!” Tonks clapped, jumping up from her chair and running out the door, tripping over a chair leg and banging her shoulder against the door frame on the way out.

Remus’ eyes followed her wistfully. Sirius knocked his shoulder and hissed in his ear, “Do it now! Go after her, ask her!”

Remus shrugged off his friend’s well-meaning gesture. “Leave me alone! She’s never even looked at me after I told her off years ago. What have I got to offer?”

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Sirius groaned. He closed his eyes and then hopped up when Molly came in with the food. With a flourish, he bowed to her and grandly proclaimed, “Mrs. Weasley, you truly know that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Would you do me the honor of accompanying me to the Yule Ball?”

“Oh hush, you!” Molly fluttered, turning beet red at the rakish wizard’s blatant flirting. 

Mr. Weasley chuckled and shook his head, striding over to his wife and cutting a look at his good friend, leaning his wife back for sweet, passionate kiss.

Sirius grasped his chest as if wounded. “Oh, my bleeding heart, broken again by a fiery haired vixen!”

The room erupted in laughter and catcalls as folks piled into the kitchen to help serve food and dig in.

The din carried into the hallway as Tonks rushed down first one end of the expanded home and then to the other, unfamiliar with the newest addition. She caught sight of a black cloak rounding a corner and quickly took off after it.

Stepping out the back, she grabbed onto Severus just in time to catch him before he Disapparated. Such was the way in which she plowed into him that they knocked together to the hard, cold ground, Severus uttering a surprised, “Fuck!” and Tonks laughing an “Oops!” at the same time.

She landed on top of him, the man spread-eagle and the wind knocked out of him. His cloak lay splayed about; arms come around her back in the effort to protect her person instinctively even as he took the brunt of the fall, wincing after his expletive before resting his surprised gaze upon her giggling form.

“Wotcher, Snape!” she giggled furiously, straddling his waist. Her insides twisted violently at their intimate position. Face flushing bright red and hair turning silver and green with arousal and embarrassment, she unconsciously wiggled her groin against his flaccid length.

Even through the multiple layers Snape could feel the grinding, soaked core of the witch on top of him. This sudden intrusion on his personal privacy was fiercely arousing, highly disconcerting and mind-blowing. Only his years of espionage had him at a thread’s edge, teetering hard to keep his face straight and cock from springing instantly erect.

“What is the meaning of this, you clumsy oaf!” he grated, his voice gruff with arousal, embarrassment and highly practiced bite.

“I need to ask you something!” she bounced slightly, leaning forward and placing her small hands on his chest.

The slight weight of them burned imaginary palm-prints into his chest. Despite his best, most fierce and tenuous hold on his self-control, it slipped with a weary sigh and his member sprang to full attention.

“Ask, witch!” he growled, unable to sustain the momentum of arousal suddenly raging through him without rolling her over, ripping her trousers and knickers off and thrusting into her burning heat right then and there, house full of Weasley’s be damned.

Amazed he hadn’t thrown her off of him, Tonks flushed even more hotly when his cock responded and sprang to life beneath her. Her inner slut squealed with delight that the battle-hardened bat was, indeed, flesh and blood and turned on. Maybe this should be her new plan of attack? Ambush the git and shag him senseless.

Leaning in until her lips were mere inches away from his face, she breathed, “Mr. Snape, would you do me the honor of attending the Yule Ball with me?”

Snape sucked in a breath at her blatant proposal. Date? Him? She wanted to –date- him? It was one thing to be crushed on, and quite another to be courted. How forward she was! What the hell was he supposed to do now? Oh god, oh god, his heart panicked. What the hell is happening to me? I can’t fall for a witch! You filthy traitor of an organ! We promised ourselves we’d stay single! Unattached! Yet his heart and loins were now burning steadily, thumping in a steaming, pounding rhythm of _‘fuck her, say yes, love her’!_

“NO!” he roared, shoving upwards and heaving her from his person. She flew backwards, landing hard on her arse and off to one side.

Just like that, right on the ground, he Disapparated, leaving a stunned Tonks choking back a sob just as Remus rushed from the back door, having watched almost the entire thing and yelling, “Snape, you fucking moron!”

A silent Lily shook her head and slipped back into the dining room. Some things never changed.

Sirius narrowed his eyes as first a solemn Lily, and then a morose Remus filed back to the table. They sat at opposite ends, eyeballing plates without seeing, that sat, untouched.

A long, slow smirk played over the Marauder’s face as a devious idea came to mind.

 

\--

 

“Finished, boss.”

“Good. Bottle it and put it in stasis. We’ve got some witches to punish tonight.”

The third wizard stood, mute against the backdrop of the dusty, moldering room. Trapped within his own mind, he screamed and screamed to get out, unable to force himself free of this living nightmare.

A crying woman, naked and bruised in a corner on a filthy mattress, tried to scream and was silenced by the much bigger man that knelt next to her. 

_“Obliviate!”_

 

\--

 

“There’s been another attack. My informant tells me you know the victim.”

“Anna Greengrass.”

“Isn’t she Astoria’s cousin?”

“Yes.”

Harry scrubbed at his eyes again. 

Draco waited patiently, unsure what exactly Potter wanted with him. His family had kept their collective nose clean since the war. Working for Arthur’s broom taxi business was grunt work, but it kept him in good standing with honest employment, and mentoring part-time with Snape was getting his name known in the Master’s circles, hoping for an apprenticeship soon. Snape was already overloaded with work and unwilling to take him and risk having the taint of favoritism hanging over his head, especially still being on parole.

His famous girlfriend didn’t cut him any slack, which was just the way he liked it. A wizard should be able to stand on his own two feet.

At length, Harry stood and walked from behind his desk, scrutinizing the young wizard he’d become good friends with. Deciding the frank approach was best, he let out a long breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

“Are you involved with drugging witches and Muggles for the purpose of raping them?”

Draco’s firm, no-nonsense reply eased Harry’s concerns. “No.”

Harry nodded, believing him. Draco had never given him reason to doubt the lad since his return to society.

“I’ll submit to Veritaserum.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“I don’t want this accusation fucking up everything I’ve worked for.”

“It won’t. You have my word.”

Draco’s sharp, silver eyes flickered with visible relief. “Thank you, Potter. You don’t know what that means to me.”

“I think I do.”

“What can I do for you?” Draco asked, getting on with business, and eager to put behind them, his quite Gryffindor-ish release of feeling..

“Hermione’s going to be part of the sting.”

 _“She’s what?”_ Draco roared, panicking at the thought of his girlfriend putting herself in such blatant danger. He was relieved when she’d given up the private detective routine in favor of regulating potions ingredients and Muggle pharmaceutical introduction into wizarding culture. This recent job hadn’t seemed all that dangerous. Apparently, scholarly pursuits could still land you in hot water.

“She insisted.”

“I bet she did,” Draco growled, forcing himself to calm down. It wouldn’t do to lose his infamous cool anymore than he already had.

“Who else?” Draco inquired, sitting to calm himself further.

“My mum, Tonks, and Luna.”

“Merlin’s hairy arse!”

“Tell me about it,” Harry replied glumly. 

“Why are you allowing this? I thought _you_ were in charge of this investigation.”

“I am!” the head Auror replied, exasperated beyond belief. “You know how headstrong the lot of them are! They decided a group approach was best, safety in numbers and all that. Do you think I want my nuts on the receiving end of Hermione’s wand for refusing her?”

“You have a point.”

Both wizards shuddered at the thought of Hermione’s legendary temper. 

“So fill me in, since you’re involving my woman.”

Harry rehashed the meeting at Grimmauld, bringing the Malfoy heir up to speed.

“I’m worried about how we’re going to finance the tab at the pub, the fake security at the decoy establishment where the rest of us will be, and knowing for sure if the women are in trouble.”

Draco thought for a moment and grinned. “You know the DA galleon concept Arthur uses for having customers contact him for the taxi business?”

“Yeah?” Curious, Harry leaned forward.

“Well, it would be simple for them to activate with a charm, keyed to location. We could even have it become a port-key if the situation was dire.”

“Brilliant! Tell me why you won’t take the job I offered again?”

“Because my girlfriend said if she couldn’t work for the Ministry, neither could I.”

“Buggar.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. Controlling witch.”

The young men laughed and began plotting. Harry was already tired, what with getting ready for the upcoming Ball, his regular staffing and cases, debriefing on this special assignment and additional meetings, but with Draco offering his father’s money, it seemed as if all of his extra problems had suddenly been solved involving the set-up.

He conveniently and happily signed a new agreement counting the Malfoy ‘donation’ as part of their long-term charity goals. Harry liked when a case just magically seemed to come together.

If only it were that easy…..

 

\--

 

Rather put out yet from Snape’s blatant refusal of her offer a few days hence, Tonks was distracted during training and fell flat when a simple stunner knocked her down.

“What the hell kind of block was that?” asked her interim partner, Bill having a Healer appointment with his wife. They had been trying for months to get pregnant.

“The kind that says I’d better pay attention!” the Auror snapped, jumping to her feet.

Lee walked up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder as she dusted herself off manually. 

“Want to talk?”

“Nothing to talk about,” she muttered, her hair turning it’s natural mousey grey-brown.

Lee shook his head. “You’re a terrible liar. Your hair always gives you away.”

Tonks pulled a wisp in front of her and frowned. “Damned hair. I should go bald.”

Lee laughed, taking her hand and pulling her out of the training room. “Let’s go sit down and you can tell me about it.”

Tonks shook her head at him even as she let him lead her. She stumbled and he caught her with an easy laugh. “It’s amazing you ever passed training!”

“Tell me about it! When it comes to the field, I’m a pro, but you wouldn’t know it with the way I bumble through my life.”

“I think it’s adorable.”

Tonks froze mid-step, her gaze intercepted by the earnest one of the dark-skinned Auror that was partnering her for the day.

Lee Jordan had only been on the force a short while, but he was built, had an easy laugh and bright smile, and was a damn fine recruit. Tonks had already turned him down twice for a date and insisted she didn’t “see” him that way. He’d easily settled for friends, but the look in his eyes just now told her he wasn’t over his interest.

“I won’t ask.”

She winced at his blunt response to her obvious nervousness over the moment. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. It’s just, I like you a lot, and whatever bloke is breaking your heart is a right fool.”

“Am I that obvious?”

Lee grinned and his infectious humor bubbled over onto Tonks as she returned it with gusto. 

“You know? You’re right. What did you have in mind?”

“That’s the spirit! I’ve been dying to ask you to the Yule Ball!”

Tonks’ eyes grew wide and then resigned as she shook her head. “I’m going stag.”

“Ah, come on! Be a sport. We’ll go as friends, just friends, I promise on Merlin’s saggy left nutsack!”

Tonks cracked up and Lee raised his right hand. “I swear on my wand!”

Serious once more, she thought about it for a full minute before responding, “Alright, but it won’t have to be as just friends. It can be a real date.”

“Really?” Lee looked ecstatic with joy.

The witch smiled shyly as he whooped and picked her up easily with a startled shriek, spinning her around. 

“Alright!” He fist-pumped the air and took off at a jog.

“Where are you going?” she called after him with a laugh at his antics. “I’ve got to go tell Fred and George! They owe me twenty galleons each!”

“Wizards!” she sighed, rolling her eyes and then smiling a bit to herself. Indeed, why _should_ she wait around forever for a man that had no interest in her whatsoever?

Grinning, she signed out early, having completed the majority of her work anyway, and left to go find a dress that would knock Lee’s socks off.

 

\--

 

The remaining days until the Ball passed by in a blur of activity. In turn, Harry and his team were beside themselves with no further leads on their case, even with their freshest victim. They had had a small breakthrough with Legilimency therapy via Snape, which had brought out a hazy memory of a room and three men, but the images were so fragmented it was unsure whether they were truly memories or a dream. Snape was chagrined that such an almost-perfect, unbreakable _Obliviate_ had been performed. 

Anna’s blood tests were clean, which was the most troubling part. It seemed as if the potion had again been changed, if that were still the method involved. The young lady had last been seen before her abduction alone in a near-empty establishment sipping pumpkin juice. No one had seen her leave and there was no one around her at the time she disappeared.

The mystery continued and Harry was desperate for a break in the case.

For the time being, everyone was in high spirits and getting ready for the Alumni Yule Ball at Hogwarts. It was the highlight of the season and they would all be able to forget about the case until after Boxing Day, when they would plan their final mode of attack.

Ginny whistled appreciatively at the tuxedo-style dress robes her fiancé’ was decked out in.

“You look HOT!” she purred as she sashayed over to him. Resplendent in her own baby-blue, frilly and sexy number, Harry returned the sentiment with a ravishing kiss. 

“So do you, baby. I could eat you for supper.”

“Say it again, only this time, use the magic word.”

“Pleasssssee!” he begged in her ear, leaning her down for an intimate kiss. His hand wandered up her stocking-clad thigh and she moaned into his mouth, his arousal pressed tight against her.

“Oh shite! We’re going to be late!”

“Who cares?”

“Fashionably late?”

Harry waggled his eyebrows at her. “I am the boss. I can show up when I like. Now let me take you upstairs and show you my skill at taking your stockings off. With my teeth.”

“Ooooh, Harry James Potter, I do so love a man that can please me with his mouth!”

“I better be the only one!” he growled, sweeping her up bridal-style and carrying her up their renovated staircase.

“Oh, you are,” she sighed into his mouth once more as they entered the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him.

 

\--

 

The girls were all getting ready, crowded into Luna’s bedroom. 

Hermione screeched from within the bathroom, halting the excited chatter of the others. “Goddamnit!”

“What’s the matter?” Luna asked serenely, swanning into the bathroom.

Hermione muttered something about her hair and Luna leaned out. “Fleur, could you be a doll and fix Hermione’s hair?”

“Sure! I would love to!” she exclaimed in her French accent, extricating herself from the fluffy pillows on Luna’s bed to join them.

Tonks charmed the front of her dress to her chest with a sticking charm, plumping up the ‘girls’ with a similar charm to enhance them but not overexpose them if she were to bend over. Pleased with the result and finished with her make-up and hair, she sat demurely, waiting for the others to finish. It always took Hermione three times as long to do her hair as the others, insisting she could do it herself before freaking out at the last minute and accepting help.

A polite knock on the door had her scurrying, as the other girls were still occupied with Hermione’s moaning and groaning.

She opened the door a crack, throwing it open so she could see the dazzling Malfoy heir at his finest. Her eyes travelled up and down his lithe, built form appreciatively. 

“Hermione’s a lucky girl.”

“Don’t you know it!” Draco grinned cockily. It was then Tonks noticed that Draco’s father was standing behind him a few paces. “Mr. Malfoy?” she asked in shock. If Draco was good looking, Malfoy Sr. was smoking hot by comparison. 

“Lucius,” he intoned, stepping forward to take her thinly gloved hand to kiss the knuckles. “Charmed.”

Tonks held her hand to her chest. “I take that back. Hermione is doubly lucky.”

Lucius smiled graciously, trying to peek over her shoulder and failing when she closed the door a crack. “Are the ladies ready?”

“Almost,” she shrugged, shooing them out. “I’ll send them down. No peeking!”

“Nice try, Father,” Draco grumbled, turning to head down the stairs. “Where is your date, Miss Tonks?” Lucius inquired politely in spite of his son’s disappointed retreat.

“Oh, Lee? He’s meeting me at the Ball. He said he had some last minute business to take care of.”

“Hmmm, how dedicated,” drawled the blond bombshell, picking some imaginary lint from his finely embroidered sleeve. “One should never leave a date unescorted.”

Tonks snorted in a very un-lady-like way. “I can take care of myself.”

“I’m sure you can. Good day, Miss Tonks.”

“Bye Lucius.”

Tonks shut the door and leaned against it, her nostrils filled with their delicious scents. Hermione was so lucky to be escorted by both Malfoys, even though she knew it was only a friendly courtesy to Lucius, as he had no intention of dating at this time. There were still too many gold diggers after his fortune for him to take any offers of dating seriously.

But hot damn, they reminded her heavily of one dark and sexy potions master. Luna’s own date, the current Hogwarts Potions Master, was a dark bloke, but he didn’t hold a candle to Snape, in her opinion. 

No matter how hard she would try and pay attention to her date, Tonks knew she was in trouble if she ran into Snape. There was no denying how badly she wanted him, and would hate being rude in front of Lee in light of her hair color changing so drastically.

 

\--

 

The darkened classroom gave off very little light, the moon slitting through the high windows recessed deep within the ancient stone walls. Only the wand light from the biggest of the trio of men lit two of their faces dimly, smugly.

“Good work. I couldn’t have asked for an easier setup. Is _he_ ready?”

“As he’ll ever be.”

The dark eyes of the leader burned hotly with anticipation. “I’m going to make him watch. If I can’t make his filthy son pay, then _he_ will pay the price for him. That, and what I’m going to do to Potter’s precious Auror.”

The bound man’s head screamed in rage and fright and humiliation. No one would ever know he was here, or gone, if they decided to kill him. He was supposed to be on undercover assignment. Too late. It was all going to be too late.

The slighter of the two shifted nervously. “Do you think she’ll fall for it?”

“That Tonks bitch? She’s been eating out of my hand all week.”

“No, Lovegood. Her father’s going to be here. Those two are thick as thieves.”

“I’ll take care of him. You just get her down here. Make up something about needing to check on your potions stores. She won’t think anything of the Hogwarts Potions Master leaving with his date for a little bit. Hell, that crazy bitch will probably think it’s romantic.”

“Yeah, they don’t call her ‘Loony Lovegood’ for nothing.”

The two snickered together, the leader’s teeth gleaming. He closed his mouth suddenly and shoved the still form of the bound man with one foot, causing him to grunt, but that was all. 

“I haven’t decided whether I should kill you and let your son find your body, or Obliviate you again.”

_“- again, again, again, and again…..”_

Echoes and memories raged through his skull, pounding like a hundred thestrals trying to break through an invisible barrier. His head thundered with the force of trying to remember, and then came the dreaded words, _“Imperio.”_

Calm. All was right with the world, the artificial peace taking over once more. Serene. Calm. Everything was fine.

“You’re going to need to check on him. He keeps fighting it. This is the third time I’ve had to spell him this evening. You cast one before you leave, just in case. Don’t come upstairs too soon. I don’t want it to look like we’ve been hanging out. I’m supposed to be arriving via the Apparition point and meeting my date up there.”

The smaller wizard nodded. “Right.”

“Don’t forget the plan.”

“What happens if she won’t come down?”

The handsome face of the ring leader turned ugly with derision. “Just grab some other bird. Doesn’t matter, does it?”

The other shook his head and turned to their captive, taunting him cruelly and waiting the required fifteen minutes before spelling the man, double checking his appearance and then making his way from the dungeons to the party above.

 

\--

 

Hermione stood with Draco’s arms draped around her, smiling happily up at the form of her wizened mentor, Headmistress McGonagall, as she toasted the celebratory participants and wished them all a Blessed Yule and upcoming New Year.

Seating themselves, everyone dug in, Luna with her date a few tables down, Bill and Fleur at another with a few of the other Weasley’s, and Molly and Arthur opposite her own dates. She vaguely wondered where Harry was, and then remembered how amorous he and Ginny had been recently and rather decided it was a good thing, if their late appearance was any indication, that they were getting it out of their systems beforehand.

Tonks was seated with Lee Jordan closer to the doors of the Great Hall with a couple she didn’t recognize. 

She sat up a little straighter in her chair, sharp eyes peering around the filled, converted Great Hall. A little further down and over was a seated Sirius and a furious looking Remus. Harry’s mum looked rather happy and was chatting happily away into Lupin’s ear. 

Remus didn’t seem to be hearing a word she said and Sirius kept jabbing at his shoulder, earning him repeated glares. The confusing scene greatly amused her and she reminded herself to ask Sirius about it later on.

Sirius, dateless, also led her to an amused smirk, the dark-haired Marauder obviously focused on matchmaking duty this evening.

James was nowhere to be seen, but then she remembered he’d said he’d be gone for the season, but not mentioned why. Curious. She was usually one of the first to hear about anything going on in their tight group of friends. Ron was off taming dragons with Charlie while the rest of the Romanian team took the holiday break to be with their families. It was a shame really, she’d really been looking forward to seeing him. Maybe after the New Year…..

Her reverie was broken when the doors to the Hall slammed open, admitting a glowering Severus Snape. He did not look at all happy and Draco shot an alarmed look at his Father.

Lucius held up one distinguished hand. “I’ll take care of it.”

Relieved, Draco sat back and turned to his date, stroking her hand reassuringly.

Lucius intercepted his friend, who was making a beeline for the table of a witch he’d sworn off just the night before, much to Lucius’ chagrin. If Snape wasn’t interested in a woman he simply wouldn’t acknowledge her existence. The very fact he bitched so much about her spoke volumes to the trained Slytherin, not to mention, Severus had been his best friend for many years.

“Ah, Severus. Do join us,” he intercepted smoothly.

Severus pretended not to hear him, making as if to barge past him but the firm grip on his shoulders stopped him cold.

“I think not, old friend. You’ve made your choice, and she’s made hers. Let her go.”

“Like bloody hell I will! Look at him! His hands are all over her!” he seethed.

Lucius sneered. “You’re losing your touch and attracting unwanted attention.” He glanced about inconspicuously, but just enough to assure Snape that he was, indeed, drawing peering glances and mutterings from the surrounding tables.

“Very well,” he conceded through tightly clenched teeth. “Where are you seated?”

“Just over there. Come.”

He guided Snape without incident back to their table. They expanded the table just a bit to fit him in next to Lucius. Food appeared before the dark wizard but he didn’t touch it. Lucius poured him a Firewhisky. 

Hermione raised her eyebrows at this but Draco stilled her protest with a simple gesture. It was obvious his Godfather needed it.

Snape downed it in one go, his jaw working furiously on nothing, the lower set beyond the upper in rage.

“What’s his problem?” Hermione mouthed quietly over a forkful of pie.

Draco leaned in, well aware of his Godfather’s excellent hearing despite his obvious attention being elsewhere.

“He’s got it bad for Tonks.”

If Hermione’s brows could have disappeared into her hairline, they would have, and Draco chuckled at her reaction.

“It really is no surprise to me and Father, but you’d think Snape would have quit fighting the attraction long ago. He does nothing but complain about her, these days.”

“Yes, I’ve noticed him mentioning her quite a bit when we work together. I thought he hated her.”

“No, that’s just Godfather’s way of liking someone.”

“He sure has an odd way of showing it.”

“Tell me about it.”

The two continued their private conversation, moving onto other subjects as Lucius quietly consumed his meal, apparently and genuinely enjoying Mrs. Weasley’s tales of raising her brood. Arthur was devouring the meal with gusto, and had quite the impressive appetite, his expanding gut requiring him to unbutton his trousers.

Molly smacked him good naturedly and he just smiled sheepishly back to her.

Others were finishing their meals and beginning to clear the tables, a soft light falling as the enchanted ceiling reflected the Aurora Borealis, earning a smattering of applause at the celestial wonder. A very pleased Flitwick shook hands all around, taking the congratulations on his fine charm work in stride.

The last of the tables cleared, Lucius excused himself for the men’s room as Draco pulled Hermione into his arms for a dance. He held her close, swaying gently and whispering into her ear about all the naughty things he wanted to do to her for Yule. She giggled when he slid a hand down to her bum and brought the wayward limb back up, earning a frown and a sigh.

“Ever so proper, as always, Granger.”

“We’re in public!” she exclaimed softly.

“I know, and I want to show the world how much I care about you,” he proclaimed, earning a sigh and soft kiss from his witch.

Elsewhere, Tonks was having her own difficulties keeping Lee’s hands from wandering, as well. While she didn’t really mind, she was quite aware of solid black, furious eyes burning a hole through her back and into her date’s heart.

“Lee! Behave!”

“I don’t want to behave! I’ve waited and waited for this, and I’m not about to let the opportunity to be close to you pass me by, unmolested.”

A finger of fear licked through her at his choice of words but she shook it off.

She pushed him back a little, again rebuffing his eager fingers as they brushed against the sides of her breasts. “Look at me,” she chided gently. Finally holding his attention, she continued, “We can continue out in the garden a little later and get frisky, but right now, I just want to relax, hang out with my date and friends and enjoy myself, alright?”

He nodded, smiling in abeyance and allaying her earlier fears at his odd choice of words. “I understand, and I apologize. I was being a right cad. Forgive me and let me get you a drink to make it up to you.”

“Sure thing! Hurry back!” she called after him, smiling at his boyish charm. Although a bit younger then her, she liked the way she felt in his arms and how strong and supportive he was.

Doing her best not to think about Snape’s constant perusal of her date, she failed and turned around, squeaking in surprise when she found him standing very close to her, but not quite touching.

“What are you doing with that _imbecile!”_ he snarled down at her, his fingers flexing and unflexing with the urge to hex the black man’s back.

Tonks crossed her arms defiantly and tossed her head. “What’s it to you, Snape?” she sneered back just as nastily. “Last time I checked you turned me down flat, so it’s really none of your fuckin’ business, is it?”

Snape reeled inwardly at her rude language. “Why you – didn’t your Daddy ever teach you some manners?”

“And who do you think you’re trying to be right now, Snape, my _Daddy?”_ she mocked back at him sharply.

Ooohh, she had a right smart tongue on her! His visage softened and turned into an easy smirk. “I bet you’d like that – if I took you over my knee and reddened that pert bottom.”

Tonks burst out laughing, a great, ungainly sound that had Lee straining to see what his date was up to, and observing the great bat entertaining Tonks and knowing that he’d upset her, he hurried up with the punch to make it back through the crowd and shoo him away like the pest he thought Snape was.

“You want to spank me? Just a little while ago I seem to recall a very hard portion of your anatomy saying yes to my proposal, even as your mouth said no and ran away.”

She had him by the balls, here, and he knew it. Still, he couldn’t let her win so easily. “I did not – as you so eloquently put it – run away. I was merely regrouping. You took me by surprise. I don’t like surprises.”

“Oh, but I do,” she purred, walking her fingers up his fine vest.

A deep shiver crawled over his skin at her light touch. Gods, the things her mere presence elicited in his deepest thoughts and desires…..

“And what, pray tell, Miss Tonks, would surprise you the most at this very moment?”

“Do you really want to know?” she asked, leaning in with both hands flat against his chest.

“Gods yes!” he rasped, the fire in his eyes burning a trail of lust through her and soaking her knickers clean through.

“-Excuse me, but my date and I were about to take a walk. Punch, Tonks?” Lee asked a bit rudely, grabbing her hand and shoving the punch into it whilst glaring at Snape.

“What? Oh, yeah, I guess. Talk to you later, Snape.”

Severus couldn’t believe she had just left him hanging like that. It was as if he’d stepped off a cliff and realized there was an invisible floor beneath him. He _wanted_ to take the fall with her, but now, he’d let her get away. Fuck it all.

He slowly walked away from the scene of his almost-love-interest having left him with her chosen wizard, clearly the better man. Shoulders slumped; he dragged himself out the doors, followed closely on his heels by Lucius Malfoy.

 

\--

 

Luna’s date panicked when Lee left the ballroom with Tonks. What the hell was he doing? It was way too early to initiate the plan!

He fiddled with his napkin, nearly spilling his punch with trembling hands. Suddenly, he wasn’t liking this scenario very much. In the past, all of their activities had been one-nighters picked up from bars, clubs or street festivals. This was a whole different kettle of fish altogether and he could hardly afford to lose his job. He would lose everything.

“Oh shite, oh shite,” he muttered, thinking it was all in his head and startled when his date spoke up. 

“Jeffrey? Are you alright? Can I get you something?”

Professor Sparks did a one-eighty, colliding with Luna and dousing her in bright pink, sparkling lemonade. 

“Oh goodness, how clumsy of me. My apologies, dear lady,” he intoned smoothly, pulling out a silk handkerchief to wipe at her stained, virginal dress. Merlin’s monocle, she was a vision!

A sour lump rose in his throat and he stumbled back a few steps, unable to go through with it. Visions of her ravaged, bleeding and crying body rose unbidden to his mind, and his suddenly aroused conscience ran screaming to the fore.

“I- I’m not feeling well, all of a sudden. Pardon me.”

He turned coattails and practically flew from the room, more than one set of curious eyes watching him flee, but none more so than the slightly saddened ones of Luna Lovegood. Her father, sensing her distress, disengaged from his own date to approach his daughter.

“What’s wrong, dove?” he inquired, hugging her lightly.

“Something terribly, I’m afraid. If you could have seen Jeffrey just now, it was the same look as mother’s when she’d have the Sight.”

“But your mother never had the Sight, angel, she was hallucinating.”

“That’s what scares me. I must go to him, Father. Will you come?”

“Of course. Let me find someone to back us up.”

“Of course.”

Her father turned away, motioning hurriedly to Lucius when the elder Malfoy reappeared with Severus at the entrance to the Great Hall.

Lucius, frowning and pointing to himself as if in question, startled when Xenophilius gestured impatiently to come, once more. 

As Lucius strode quickly through the crowd, Luna’s father turned back to find her gone.

 

\--

 

Sirius was miserable, Lily was crying, and Remus was ready to call it a night, go home and get blasted. This blind date thing Sirius had insisted on had turned out to be one disaster after another. It was clear Lily didn’t want to be with him, and Sirius kept trying to get him to feel her up. It was all very disturbing.

At Lily’s latest burst of tears when her dress ripped when he stepped on it while dancing, Remus had had enough, threw up his arms and left her on the dance floor, stalking out on the heels of Tonks and _her_ date.

“If you’ll excuse me, some of us have places to be,” he snarled rudely, shoving Lee aside to get to the Apparition site and leaving in a loud clap of sound.

“Who pissed in his cornflakes?”

Tonks shrugged. “Who the hell knows. Just get me out of here. I don’t want to be in there anymore.”

Lee shrugged and smiled to himself. She was walking right into his little trap. As she looked around, he discreetly opened his ring and dumped a miniscule portion of fluid into his drink, swirled it and offered it to her. 

She eyeballed his drink warily. “I have my own.”

“Yours is gone. Do you really want to go back in for more?”

Tonks frowned at her cup. She could have sworn it was still half-full, but she was still thirsty. Acquiescing, she took his cup and drank deeply from it. It felt good going down – a bit too good. The liquid had a sudden bite to it like alcohol, only more pleasant.

Wow. She was suddenly feeling really good. It had been a fantastic idea to get out of that stuffy old ballroom and join Lee. He was such great company, and so handsome and friendly; all smiles. Who wouldn’t want to go out with him?

“Come with me?”

“Anything you say!” Tonks agreed most amiably.

Lee had a sudden, wicked idea and went with it, eschewing his own private party to join Jeffrey in the dungeons, instead. He would just be there a bit early to give James a real good show-stopper, before the main event. Maybe he’d get lucky and be able to come back up and snag Granger. That would be the real icing on the cake, but then, he’d have to kill her. Ah, well. One chick at a time.

 

\--

 

Down in the dungeons, Luna had caught up with Jeffrey, the Professor of Potions sobbing openly in the corridor, holding himself up weakly against the doors to his office.

“I want to help you,” she offered, holding her hands out as if to soothe a wild, frightened creature. 

The lucidity was gone from his eyes. They swirled with color and his wand wavered in his right hand as he gesticulated.

“It wasn’t my idea, you know. I tried to stop him the first couple of times, but he just put me under the _Imperious_. After that, he blackmailed me into joining him.”

He laughed insanely, pointing his wand at the ceiling as it emit red sparks from its unstable owner.

“Do you know how long I’ve worked for this job? I thought Snape would never retire, and when he did I was thrilled, just thrilled, I tell you.”

Luna held her hand up, not for Jeffrey Spark’s benefit, but to signal to her father and whomever he’d secured, to stay hidden. It was a private signal they’d developed but looked random to the casual onlooker.

Jeffrey ignored her, rambling on. “Yep, a few years at Hogwarts and then I’d be able to have the resume I’d always wanted and get accepted into Durmstrang. Did you know, my great-grandfather was Headmaster there? I always wanted to fulfill his dying wish and make him proud. My own father and grandfather never gave a flying fuck. Now granddad, there was a man to be proud of.”

He seemed to ramble on and on, and Luna patiently stood and listened, cataloguing it all to later put into a Pensieve so the Healer’s at St. Mungo’s could properly isolate and treat him. It appeared as if there would be another opening at Hogwarts in the near future.

 

\--

 

Heading down the back staircase, Lee heard voices and stopped briefly, shocked at Jeffrey’s voice spilling long-held secrets and using his name freely.

“Fuck!’ he swore, dragging an oblivious Tonks back up the stairs and up another two flights. He was about to head down another set to backtrack to the Apparition site when a fresh set of footfalls had him darting into an alcove with his date. 

Tonks tittered and hiccoughed. “Are we playing hide and go seek?”

“Shut up you stupid bitch!” he hissed, trying to shush her but the strong little Auror pulled his hands away from her mouth.

“Tha’s – hic- tha’s –hic – tha’s not- hic- not- verra- hic- verra nice –hic.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, _Silencio!”_ he intoned quickly but was too late to hide them effectively. 

A long swish of red hair preceded its buxom owner. 

“Oh, hello! I didn’t know you and Tonks had come up for a bit of privacy. I’ll just leave you two then, shall I?” Lily winked at Tonks, trying to come across as conspiratorial in a girl-friend-y kind of way despite their mutual dislike, but became a bit concerned at the glazed, unfocused look in Tonks’ eyes. Something wasn’t right here.

“Everything alright, then?” she asked carefully, glancing with what she hoped was genuine and not frightened concern at Lee.

“Yeah yeah, fine. Like you said, you’d best be going because we’re –uh- busy, you know?”

He failed at trying to wink back at her, his grin pulled back just a bit too tightly and more resembling a pained grimace.

Lily’s instincts screamed at her to run and she quickly and secretly put her hand behind her back, allowing her wand to drop down into her sleeve.

_“Expelliarmus!”_

_“Imperio!”_

Lee’s curse left a split-second after Lily’s and hers hit him in the face, rebounding his head against the far wall and sending half of a suit of armor clattering down the stairs in the process. His curse dissipated uselessly against a far wall.

Tonks was jerked to the side and followed the armor in its wake, stumbling drunkenly against the railing and disappearing over the edge as her body tumbled from sight.

Lily was helpless to prevent the heart-stopping sight of Tonks’ sudden demise. Her stomach flip flopped and she vomited on herself.

Shaking and feeling weak, she stumbled towards the stairs, only to be grabbed from behind by a wandless and blinded Lee. 

“Oh no you don’t, little darling. If I can’t have her, I sure as hell am going to have something for my trouble.”

Lily screamed a blood-curdling, curl-your-nose-hair sound that echoed from one end of the castle proper to the other.

“Fucking bitch!” Lee cursed, pulling back a strong fist and punching her soundly in the mouth, then repeating the action thrice until he heard a sickening crack and her body go limp beneath him.

Dropping her, he felt around for a wand and found hers, Disillusioning himself and feeling along the wall carefully a few hundred yards as the sounds of shouts and footsteps filled the air.

“Lily! Oh my Goddess, Lily!” 

Hermione Granger’s take-charge voice sounded amid shouts and curses flowing up the staircase. “Everyone stay back! There’s been an accident!”

Lee sidled further up the hall and met a solid wall. Flattening himself against it, he slid down to wait them out.

Sirius dashed up the staircase followed by a chastened Lupin, who had returned to apologize, and very late-arriving Harry and Ginny. Draco was murmuring over her still form, several lights flickering in quick succession.

“She’s alive,” he breathed to the gush of relief from the others. “But she’s hurt. I need to get her to the infirmary. Is there a Healer in attendance?”

“Yes! Healer Bayberry is here!”

“Someone fetch Healer Bayberry!” Harry shouted above the growing din, then cast a _Muffliato_ around them so they wouldn’t disturb his mum.

“What the hell happened up here?” Sirius growled helplessly, fists clenching in an accusatory manner and promising murder to the one responsible.

Remus felt like his heart was going to explode it was beating so fast. All he could do was feel responsible. If only he hadn’t of left her- if only- 

He was brought out of his self-castigation by Draco.

“Would you give me a hand? I don’t want to use magic on her. There’s no telling what spell or curse she’s been hit with.”

“Where’s her wand?” Harry asked, searching about for it and frowning. 

Hermione cast a spell, _“Accio_ Lily Potter’s wand.” 

A startled yelp sounded from down the corridor and the length of wood slapped neatly into her hand.

 _“Accio_ Lee Jordan’s wand!” an answering voice heralded, startling the group as an unfamiliar length thrust itself from beneath the remaining pile of armor and flew down the hallway.

“Lee Jordan? Isn’t he with Tonks?”

“No, I’ve got her,” intoned the deep, mellifluous voice of Severus Snape. As if parting the Red Sea, the crowd stepped aside as he strode up the staircase with a crumbled, bleeding form in his arms. A deep bruise and cut were bleeding profusely along his right cheek and temple. “She fell on me.”

If the situation hadn’t of been so serious, Draco might have laughed, it was all so absurd.

“Well, what the hell are we waiting for, let’s get them to the infirmary! Coming through!” he shouted.

Sirius escorted Remus, who carried Lily, following Snape and Tonks, down to the Hogwarts infirmary as the Healer in question met them at the bottom of the staircase, shooting questions rapid-fire at them the entire way. Hermione made sure the crowd didn’t interfere with their passage and Professor McGonagall seemed to be escorting the majority back to the Great Hall.

Draco held onto Harry and at his protest, shushed him until the others were gone. Harry motioned for Ginny to follow Hermione, assuring her they would be fine but that they had some business to attend to.

“What is it?” he snapped at Draco, but low so only the blond could hear.

“Do you hear that?”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Shut up and listen you prat!” Draco snarled, shoving Harry’s arm.

They did, and a small, slight scraping sound met their ears.

Draco raised his wand and intoned, _“Homenum Revelio!”_

The blinded, wounded form of Lee Jordan instantly froze position along the corridor wall a scant six feet from their position, in plain sight of the two wizards.

Harry had Lee’s wand before the young lad even knew what hit him, binding his hands behind his back.

“What the hell are you doing?” he protested.

“That’s what I’d like to know. Why were you hiding? Where were you when Lily and Tonks were hurt? How did this all happen? You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Jordan,” Harry explained, clearly disappointed in his judgment, gut twisting at the thought of one of his own responsible for such hurt toward people he loved.

He had no idea what he’d stumbled onto.

 

\--

 

New Years had come and gone, and the celebrations still continued, but were much more subdued than had been planned. 

Lily’s face was repaired within a day, but it had taken several weeks more to restore her shaken confidence. She still flinched when approached by any man, but Arthur Weasley had allowed her to stay at the Burrow for awhile and was gently coaching her on self-respect and the mark of a truly genuine wizard. It had been a long time coming for the beautiful woman with amazingly low self-esteem.

Harry and Ginny’s wedding day was fast approaching now, and Lily had been happily accepting as an invited bridesmaid, in addition to Mother of the Groom. Remus was one of the groomsmen, and badly wanted to escort her. He’d realized his mistake at the party and not forgiven himself since. It had taken him this long to work up the nerve to talk to her, and this gave him the perfect excuse.

“Uh, Lily? Can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Sure!” she said brightly, happy with her stay at the Burrow but growing weary of Molly’s enthusiasm for cooking and cleaning. She desperately needed to get out of the kitchen, which Remus provided the perfect opportunity for her to do so.

Arthur smiled and shook his head and Molly frowned disapprovingly. “I don’t like it one bit. He’s treated her mightily shabbily, and now’s come to grovel. It’s not fitting.”

“Oh hush, woman, and let them be,” Arthur admonished good-naturedly.

Molly swatted at him and smiled back. “I hope they’ll be happy.”

“Me too, dear, me too.”

 

\--

 

“Hi Remus.”

“Hi Lily.”

“Can we go to the library?”

“Oh, there’s a library in here?”

Remus resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “You’ve been living here for over a month, been visiting since the rebuild, and you didn’t know there was a library?”

“Well, no, I guess not,” she answered sheepishly but followed in his wake to the small, but homey and well-stocked room.

“I used to come here all the time, when Sirius brought birds, I mean ladies, back to Grimmauld.”

Lily smiled. “What stopped you from coming?”

He didn’t answer her, only started at the fire in the grate. 

Taking a seat on the edge of one of the plush chairs, she smoothed her pretty dress and asked point blank, “Remus, why are you here?”

“OH, um yes –that.”

He settled uncomfortably opposite her and cleared his throat, nervously meeting her patient gaze. She’d come a long way since the incident. Would she forgive him?

“First of all, I’ve been asked to be one of Harry’s groomsmen, and I’d like to know if I may have the pleasure of escorting you to the wedding.”

Lily clapped like an excited, small girl. “I’d love that! Now, was that so difficult?”

“No, but this is.”

Remus dropped to his knees in front of her and took her hands in his own.

Lily’s heart flew into her throat and she almost fainted, thinking he was going to propose to her. _‘Oh gods please no, I’m not ready for that!’_

“Lily Potter, will you forgive me for walking out on you the night of the Yule Ball? If it wasn’t for my rash actions, you wouldn’t have been hurt. I’m so dreadfully sorry, and I couldn’t bear living with myself if I didn’t beg of your forgiveness.”

The relief flooding Lily’s chest was highly palpable and she laughed giddily. “Oh GODS! Yes!”

Remus looked up at her, confused. “Yes, you forgive me?”

“Yes, yes yes!” she laughed, again, delighted that he hadn’t proposed marriage. What a silly girl she felt herself to be, getting all worked up about nothing. Is that why he’d been avoiding her? Of all the nonsense….

“Remus Lupin, you get up here right now and kiss me!”

“Excuse me?”

“Fine! I’ll just have to come to you, shall I?”

And without further ado, Remus Lupin found himself with an armful of Lily Potter, and then some.

 

\--

 

Luna smiled sadly out the window on the eve of the anniversary that marked her mother’s death, a week before Ostara and Harry and Ginny’s wedding. Her father came up behind her and placed his hands firmly upon her shoulders.

“It was a shame. Such a nice lad.”

“I want to get married, Father. I want to get married, and have children and be normal, but I never will be.”

“Luna, love, look at me.” Xenophilius turned her firmly and caught her gaze with his own crystal blue ones. “You and me, we’re one of the last of the fey bloodlines. There was never anything normal or mundane about you from day one. Use your gifts wisely and do not waste them on wizards who will only break your heart.”

Luna smiled sadly once more. “I miss Mum.”

“I miss her too, dear, but I think she’d want us to move on.”

Luna nodded, returning to the window and adding almost absently, “Mr. Malfoy asked me to the Manor. Do you think I should go?”

Xenophilius paused on his walk back to his favorite tattered armchair, mildly surprised but aware that the time had come. His little girl would be moving on from their family home shortly. A new chapter in the Wheel of Life.

“Yes. I do believe you should go. You would be good for him, and he, for you.”

“We’ll see,” Luna commented absently, not really excited about the prospect.

Xeno nodded to himself. Yes indeed, the Malfoy and Lovegood blood would be strong, powerful, and the fey would live on.

 

\--

 

Tonks presided as chief witness at the trial of Lee Jordan for drugging and attempting to kidnap and rape not only her, but Lily Potter as well. His assault on Lily had been particularly brutal. 

It was chilling to watch the once-friendly young man turn into a raging psychotic in the courtroom. The Wizengamot had to take several breaks to get him under control and subdued. She was lucky she’d escaped with her life, as were his other victims. Harry was going to have his hands full unraveling the full trail, if he really could at all, what with Lee not cooperating and needing to go through red tape to invade his mind, and poor Jeffrey Sparks in St. Mungo’s and immune to prosecution.

And then there was poor James, subjected to the cruel abduction and very strange revenge of Lee against Harry through forcing the elder Potter to watch the atrocities him and then Jeffrey had committed together.

It was James’ pulled memories that finally cracked the majority of the cases, but the experience was extremely traumatic for the man and left him a bit broken and morose, the James taking a full year hiatus from undercover work to undergo magical therapy and recoup from the trauma inflicted through sustained Obliviation.

The final straw was Snape.

Snape, who had saved her when she fell on him. Snape, who had visited her every day when he thought she was sleeping and provided the potions and altered incantations that sped up her Healing.

Snape, who held her hand and read to her when the rest of the visitors had gone for the night and he’d snarled his way into letting the Mungo’s staff allow him to stay with her.

Snape, who was nowhere to be found when she was finally released from said hospital and had cried all the way home to her flat via side-along with Bill.

Snape, who she was pissed off at and madly in love with.

Her life was falling apart without Severus Snape in it, and she had to do something about it or go mad with grief and hex him.

Her unstable state of mind found her at one o’clock in the morning at the stoop that was Spinner’s End. Gods knew why he stilled lived there, but it seemed presentable enough on the outside, the neighborhood slowly renovated and bought up by a wealthy landowner that rebuilt and rented to wizarding and Muggle-born families so they could be a little closer to the school but still within reach of London via car or Floo and Apparition, depending on ability.

Tonks pounded on his door in the pouring rain until after ten minutes of shouting and being cursed at by his neighbors, the door was yanked open with a curse of, “What the fuck do you want? Do you’ve any idea what time it is?”

She pushed past him, leaving a trail of dripping wet behind on his foyer floor. Ignoring his outbursts and ranting, she slopped right through his house and into his living room, plopping onto his couch and parking her arse there for good measure.

“Go back to bed. We’ll talk in the morning,” she grumped at him, flinging her purple hair from her eyes with a wet _twhap._

Snape stood in his long, black jogging pants that hugged his backside quite nicely. A dark, sparse treasure trail led tantalizingly from his chest and thickened, disappearing into the waistband of his joggers. 

He stood with his arms folded, hair sticking about in disarray, and scars glowing almost silvery white in the stark moonlight.

“My face is up here,” he sneered ungraciously, tiredly.

Tonks was torn from her blatant perusal of his anatomy and was almost frightened by the visage of a half-naked and angry potions master looming above her.

“Go to bed?” she squeaked, much more unsure of herself now that she was planted in his domain.

“Is that an invitation? Because if it is, I’ve a right mind to take you up on it and teach you a thing or two about what Daddy might do if he caught you sneaking into a grown wizard’s home.”

With extreme shock, or it might have been the bone-deep cold permeating her thinly clad, shivering form, she realized Snape was _teasing her!_

“You great, flapping bat!” she screeched, jumping off the couch and slapping her wet body against his dry, furnace-like skin.

“Bloody hell, witch, you’re freezing!” He desperately tried to pry her off of him but she was like a limpet, clinging tight to his waist with her legs wrapping securely around one long, lean leg.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Indeed, you are not,” he agreed, succumbing to the oddness of the situation and carrying her clinging form effortlessly up his stairs and into his bathroom.

Clothing and all, he turned the water onto near-scalding and had them both in the bath before she could extricate herself from his person.

“Snape!” she screamed, going from cold to hot so quickly it was almost too much sensation to bear.

“You called for me?” he intoned, drawling his voice from a low baritone up to an almost falsetto. “Strip! You’re soaked to the bone.”

“I am now!”

“Indeed,” he murmured as she peeled off her layers, finally down to knickers and bra.

Snape sucked in a breath, shucking his own joggers and flinging the soggy heap out the bath. He turned from her lithe, toned form and began scrubbing down, promising to keep his hands off of her until she explained herself. Then it was open season. Anything goes. Gods, how long he’d wanted her, and now she was in his shower, naked….. 

Snape growled with barely concealed restraint.

“Imitating Sirius now?”

“Beg your pardon?” he barked, turning around and eyes nearly rolling out of his head at how beautiful her body was to him. 

She was still shivering, and he quickly pulled her to him, all thoughts of pristine withholding flung to the deepest recesses of his mind as he sought to warm her with his own inner body heat. Gods knew he had enough of it to go around.

“Oh Snape, you’re so fucking big,” the slight Auror groaned, her small hand attempting and failing to wrap around his burgeoning length.

“Don’t play with fire, witch, you might get burned,” he warned her, breathing rapidly through flaring nostrils as the scorching water beat down around them.

“Oh Daddy, burn me, baby,” she teased, kissing her way down his chest with quickly warming lips.

“Your wish is my command.”

Lifting her in one easy move, he pushed her back against the ice-cold tile, smirking as she hissed in response to the extreme contrast.

“I’m going to fuck you.”

“Yes!”

“And you’re going to suck my cock.”

“Gods, yes!”

“And then I’m going to lick your sweet little cunt until you scream my name.”

“Shut the fuck up and fuck me already, Snape!” she hollered at him, pulling his face to hers and tangling desperate lips, tongues and bodies together.

He easily found her slick opening and pushed the head in, grunting at how fucking tight she was. Even with a slight form, witches often had some give to them if they were loose. Not this one. He was very pleased that she’d not had many partners before him.

He pulled back a fraction and tried to push in again and met resistance. Surely she wasn’t a - ????

“Oh sweet Merlin, please tell me you’re not a virgin!” he moaned, frustration raking his nerves to shreds.

“I- I’m sorry!” she stuttered, tears beginning to slide down her face. “I didn’t know it was going to be a problem, I swear!”

Her hands started pushing at him but he held steadfast, eyes snapping as steam rose and splashed around them. “It’s not a problem, witch, but I sure as hell would have been more gentle with you!”

“I don’t want you to be gentle!” she pleaded. “Just get it over with! I’ve wanted to be with you since forever!”

Her heartfelt declaration melted a layer of old ice from around his heart and despite his good intentions, she felt so good he couldn’t help but comply, giving a hearty shove and breaking her barrier, sliding in to the hilt in the next go.

It was mind-numbingly, blindingly explosive. The moment his cock breached her snug barrier he lost control and slammed into her almost immediately once more, his animal urges taking over as he gripped her buttocks tightly, roaring into her mouth and pistoning sharply so her back took the full brunt of his full thrusts.

His balls felt extremely heavy and full, so sensuous, smacking in time with his fucking and abandonment to her tight body. The familiar tingling started up the base of his spine, hot flush radiating down his chest and flowing out into his balls and penis.

“Going to come!” he gasped into her wet hair, slapping harder, not noticing the multitude of tears and grimacing coming from his partner. All he knew was the extreme pleasure and gift that was Nymphadora Tonks, finally inside of the woman he’d denied himself but wanted something more with for months.

Tonks nodded and he sighed explosively, pinning her tight to the wall and grunting heavily as he shot load after load against her cervix.

When the last of his orgasm had faded and he noticed the water starting to run luke-warm, it was with great shock and regret he then saw the blood streaks washing away from his flaccid cock, and the tear trails copiously dotting her face.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked, highly concerned and winced when she shied away from his touch.

“I have to go!” she spat out, trying to slip past him but he caught her and winced again when she cried out low, in obvious pain and with bruises blooming along her back.

“Oh, bloody Merlin!” he swore, picking her up naked and carrying her struggling, protesting form into his bedroom. Gingerly laying her on his four-poster, he snapped at her when she scratched at his chest and left a bloody trail of claw marks.

“Damn witch! Would you settle down? I have potions!”

Tonks turned away from him, curling up on her side. Fuck, he’d really beat her up good with his cock. Fuck. Now he’d never win her over.

Well, she did ask for it!

Grabbing some of the strongest shit he owned, he came back in and urged her to take them, which she did begrudgingly and was out before he could count to ten.

With a deep sigh of relief, he scrubbed his hands through his hair and lit a fire, wandlessly, in the grate. Her skin quickly returned to normal, her puffy genitalia clearing magically and becoming tight and healthy peach/pink once more. She was still beautiful, even in her sleep, and her hair was light silver with a smattering of pink. He could get used to waking up next to her, he decided, no matter how maudlin that sounded to the snarling old Snape inside that was slowly fading in the wake of his heart falling in love.

He set a charm to wake him if she tried to leave the bed and was rewarded several hours later with a light gong sound.

“Going somewhere?”

“To the loo! Is that alright?”

“Yes, but come right back.”

“Yes, my liege,” she bit back sarcastically.

Snape grinned. He loved a little spitfire of a woman, he did.

When she crawled back into bed he noticed her placement far away from him. He reached out and dragged her backwards, stilling her kicking form by covering it with a long leg and trapping her beneath him. Rolling lightly on top, he spread her legs with his thigh and began rubbing it gently against her sex.

Her snarling turned into purring and placed his mouth down against her ear, finally trusting she wasn’t going to bite him or something.

“Forgive me, love. I’ve never had a virgin, and it’s been many years since I’ve been with a witch as lovely as you.”

He heard her laugh and chuckled back. “I’m completely serious. It’s not everyday a sexy little Auror throws herself against my door in the middle of the night and gives me her luscious body.”

“Is that all I am to you, Snape? A willing body to warm your bed?”

He pulled back from her then and studied her somberly. His reply stunned and delighted her both. “Absolutely not. You are much, much more to me than that, and always shall be, if you will forgive my barbaric behavior from before.”

“Let’s start over, and you can show me what Daddy would do,” she purred back.

Relieved, he kissed and suckled his way down her neck, taking copious amounts of time to lave and suckle each breast. Severus really was a breast man, but he wasn’t picky. Big, small, he loved them all, especially if they were for his eyes alone.

“Oh Snape, oh shit Snape, that is so fucking hot!” she crooned, kneading the back of his head like a kitten suckling its mother.

Snape could have cried at the tender, intimate touches she unknowingly bestowed upon him. In the extremely short time they’d been together, she’d already given him more tenderness and compassion than the handful of his entire life’s combined, meager and mostly accidental personal experience with touching another human being that wasn’t in anger or violence.

He kissed and sucked past her belly button, tonguing it on the way and earning an expletive, before stopping at her treasure box, all slick and dewy with fresh arousal.

He was the first man to put his mouth on this witch and he was suddenly nervous, having very limited experience in this area. Then he relaxed, as his rational brain informed him that she had no idea either, so they were on mostly equal footing. He’d take note of her responses and go from there.

Tentatively, he licked his lips and then ran his tongue along the seam of her pussy, her low cry quite encouraging. Although he didn’t care for her death grip on his hair, he decided to let her get away with it –this time.

Slipping past the outer layer, he peeled back her lovely petals with his fingertips and found the pearl of pleasure within. Diving in gently, his tongue sought out the nubbin and flicked in lightly, drawing it just past his lips to suckle lightly.

Several things seemed to happen simultaneously. Tonks’ hips bucked and she screamed aloud, her thighs snapping closed around his head as her hands pushed his face firmly into her groin.

Juices seemed to explode from everywhere at once, but having nowhere to go, lathered the parts of his face that were exposed in her copious exultation of arousal. Just when he thought he’d suffocate by way of her pleasure, she let him go and fell limply back onto the bed.

“Holy Jesus fucking Jiminy, Snape! Where the hell did you learn to eat pussy like that?”

He crawled up her, giving her an incredulous look that encompassed his enthrallment at her coarse language coupled with her apparent naivety.

“I’ve done it once.”

“You’re a God. Do it again.”

He barked out a laugh and bent to kiss her but she rolled away. “Nuh uh. That’s too kinky for me. You’ve got to break me in slowly, bad boy.”

“I thought I was Daddy.”

“So you are.”

He cleansed himself, albeit reluctantly. He quite enjoyed being slathered in her pleasure. It meant he was doing his job well.

She backed off the bed and flashed him a grin, sprinting out of his bedroom and taking the stairs three at a time to the main level.

Struck by surprise, Snape grinned and took off after her, starkers through his own house. Who knew the little vixen would go for a midnight birthday suit romp?

Knowing his own home much more thoroughly, he stalked her and let her think he’d gone back to bed, surprising her on the staircase even as she screamed and tried to knee him in the groin, which he expertly caught.

“Bad, bad girl. Trying to hurt the family jewels?”

“Merlin’s sagging tits, you are a crack-up!” she trilled gasping for breath from giggles as he thumped her back onto the bed and turned her around smartly.

“On your hands and knees, witch. Daddy’s turn.”

Tonks complied, slightly nervous. 

He felt her hesitation and leaned over, soothing her with his strong, calloused fingers. “I won’t hurt you. I promise.”

Nodding slightly, she spread her legs for him, the plump petals of her sex dripping onto the bed and nearly sending his sex drive into a fit of conniptions.

 _‘Easy, old chap.’_ He admonished himself smartly. 

Ever so carefully, he prepared her with his fingers, pumping first one, then two and eventually three into her dripping sex. By the time he’d guided his cock to her entrance he was nearly strangled with the urge to thrust and come, greenhorn that he was. 

What the hell was wrong with him? He hadn’t wanted to fuck a woman so bad since he was seventeen years old!

 _‘That’s because she’s the one you’re meant to be with.’_ His conscience whispered and he growled it away. He wasn’t ready to go that far although he wasn’t adverse to it –anymore.

He pushed in so slowly that he had Tonks yelling at him. “Would you fuck me already? I’m going to sleep down here!”

“Fine!” he roared back, slamming to the hilt and then giving her a moment to catch her breath. “Did I hurt you?” he asked softly.

“Gods no, it’s so good, I want more! More, Snape!”

“With pleasure.”

And what a pleasure it was, hunching over her back and driving into her, lightly smacking his pelvis against her jiggling bum, fingers plying her pert nipples and extended clitoris with ease. He even went so far as to stick a finger into her mouth, eyes rolling back when she sucked it in enthusiastically and bit the pad of his thumb provocatively.

“Feel so good, you feel so fucking good,” she chanted, beginning to catch his rhythm and push back into him, meeting him thrust for thrust.

A roiling, boiling furnace, tight and silken heaven paradise his cock never wanted to give up, was the epitome creation his mind envisioned as his manhood pumped her, over and over, over and over, falling into a sweaty, marathon pattern.

Without missing a beat he rolled them, laying gently on top of her, forearms braced on either side so as not to crush her and leaning his head down to meet her mouth eagerly, longingly, getting lost in her warmth and pleasure and love.

After what seemed like forever the slow burn changed to one of urgency and he felt her respond to his sharpened thrusting, fingers biting harshly into his flexing and burning buttocks. Bloody hell, he had muscles he hadn’t worked out this way in ages, and they were beginning to cramp big time!

“Tonks, I’m going to come, want you to come with me, flow over me, be my volcano, my Diana, be my everything, Tonks, fucking you, I’m fucking you, Oh goddess so fucking good I’m – I’m Ahhhh!”

The last bit of his monologue was punctuated by quick, jerky and sloppy thrusts that at last found what they were looking for –completion inside this incredible woman’s hot, tight cunt.

“Tonks!” he cried out, bellowing as he came wildly, spurting jet after jet of creamy come inside of her.

“Oh fuck, Snape, hell yah!” she cried back to him, following on the heels of his hard-won orgasm with her own, clamping down and milking the last vestiges of essence from his body.

In their post-coital languor, he slipped out of her but only so he could move down and more easily snog her into oblivion, being that much taller than her, overall.

Wrapped in one another’s arms, they kissed and petted and just before dawn, came together once more, him slipping in behind her and bringing her off with his fingers and allowing himself a quick completion, as she was still sore from their earlier coupling. It took him no time at all to fill her with his dry ejaculation and head buried in the nape of her neck.

He fell asleep inside of her.

 

\--

 

Ostara came and went, the wedding again postponed due to a flurry of breakthroughs in the case they’d cracked. More victims had been found and dealt with, either seeking help for them in the Muggle world through another interim, private and discreet consultant, or helping them through an intense regimen via magical means.

At last, the summer equinox arrived and the long-awaited wedding was well underway.

The bridesmaids giggled at one another, comparing rings. Luna sported a huge diamond and was surprised that the others were making such a big deal about it. She supposed it was rather fetching in the light, but she rather enjoyed its ability to keep away the Nargles. She was tired of them stealing her shoes, although Lucius always bought her more.

“We’re not engaged. Lucius told me it’s a promise ring,” she replied airily to Fleur’s questioning.

The other girls giggled and rolled their eyes at her obliviousness.

Tonks shyly stuck out her hand as well, and the rest of the female wedding party screamed, eliciting an alarmed well-check from Mrs. Weasley. Ushering her back out, they all gathered around to see.

“I thought you said Snape wanted to wait!”

“Whey didn’t you tell me!”

“When the hell did this happen?”

Tonks grinned. “Last night. He said he didn’t want Potter to have one-up on him, and it was better to make an honest woman of me sooner rather than later. After all, it was the proper thing to do,” she copied in her best, business-like Snape voice.

The girls burst into laughter and Hermione rolled her eyes, sticking out her hand and turning her ring around as well. “As long as the cat’s out of the bag.”

A fresh round of screaming ensued and there were tears all around, the girls hugging and laughing and crying until a concerned Ginny came in and then there was a fresh round of hugging and laughing and crying.

The men were confounded at the entire racket and Harry was nervous that Ginny was having a breakdown, and was going to back out of it all.

The last lady (besides Fleur, as she was already married to Bill and now happily expecting) to be cajoled into telling her secret was Lily. Her secret wasn’t that she was engaged, but that she was pregnant, but waiting until after the wedding to tell her son and ex-husband, afraid she’d ruin Ginny’s special day if they both decided to hex the shit out of Remus for getting her up the duff first.

The day was, indeed, joyous, in more ways than one. The crime spree and terrorizing of witches had long ended, and while the entirety of the potion in question had not been solved, the perpetrators were firmly ensconced behind bars or the walls of the mental ward.

In the following year there were weddings, babies, more announcements, and overall, the joy they all deserved –everlasting love and peace. So mote it be.


End file.
